![]() ![]() "One could not ask for a timelier argument.Kinzer is right: the first debate over American empire at the end of the nineteenth century speaks to our own time."- The New York Review of Books "A well-researched account, which also gestures toward subsequent U.S. Every argument over America's role in the world grows from this one. All Americans, regardless of political perspective, can take inspiration from the titans who faced off in this epic confrontation. Only once before-in the period when the nation was founded-have so many brilliant Americans so eloquently debated a question so fraught with meaning for all humanity. ![]() ![]() Washington, and Andrew Carnegie preached restraint. Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Randolph Hearst pushed for imperial expansion Mark Twain, Booker T. Their debate gripped the nation as the best-known political and intellectual leaders took sides. In The True Flag, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the twentieth century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether to intervene in a foreign country. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Then we retreat-until the cycle begins again. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. ![]()
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