What road did Americans travel to reach their current global preeminence? Taking the long historical view, Hunt demonstrates that wealth, confidence, and leadership were key elements to Americas ascent. In an analytic narrative that illuminates the past rather than indulges in political triumphalism, he provides crucial insights into the countries problematic place in the world today. Hunt charts Americas rise to global power from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to a culminating multilayered dominance achieved in the mid-twentieth century.