Description
Book SynopsisAndrew J. Priest offers a new understanding of the roots of American empire that foregrounds the longer history of perceptions of European powers. He traces the development of American thinking about European imperialism in the years after the Civil War, before the United States embarked on its own overseas colonial projects.
Trade ReviewUnlike any other book on the matter,
Designs on Empire takes a deep dive into American elites’ rhetoric about European empires. Priest forcefully challenges the exceptionalist view that the United States was both nonimperial and uninvolved in European affairs prior to the 1890s and exposes the many ways that the United States was tied up in European power politics throughout the nineteenth century. -- Katherine Unterman, author of
Uncle Sam’s Policemen: The Pursuit of Fugitives Across BordersWhat did America think of “empire” before it constructed its own overseas empire? By illuminating the often ambivalent views held by Americans of European imperialism in the Reconstruction era, this book offers a novel and welcome contribution to America’s fraught relationship with imperialism. -- Julian Go, author of
Patterns of Empire: The British and American Empires, 1688 to the PresentAndrew Priest uncovers the neglected story of how late-nineteenth century U.S. statesmen looked abroad for imperial models, even as they denied the existence of their own empire. Deeply researched, tightly written, and ranging around the world,
Designs on Empire reveals that America’s emerging global empire bore the imprint of the imperial formations of the Old World. -- Jay Sexton, author of
A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American HistoryFascinating and deeply researched. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: The Challenge of the American Empire
1. The United States and European Empires
2. France and the Mexican Intervention
3. Spain and the Ten Years’ War in Cuba
4. Britain and the Occupation of Egypt
5. Germany and the Berlin West Africa Conference
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
