Title: America in the shadow of empires /
Authors: Coates, David, 1946-
Year: 2014
Subjects: National characteristics, American History; Imperialism Case studies.; HISTORY / United States / General.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / History & Theory.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism.; United States Foreign relations; United States Social conditions
Abstract: "America is in trouble at home. Difficulties abound: unemployment and poverty for many, financial pressure for most, opulence for just a privileged few. Yet America is also active abroad, in a role that is equally troubling and difficult. The book explores the relationship between problems at home and challenges abroad, to see if by reducing the latter we can improve the former.. It does so by examining the fate of economies and societies that have also briefly enjoyed global dominance. The premise of the book is that, by looking back at what went wrong for them, we might go forward avoiding similar mistakes. The empires that preceded us - and left the greatest imprint upon us - are the ones chosen for particular attention here: the empires of Rome, Spain, Britain and Russia (both Tsarist and Soviet). They ultimately fell. Must America follow suit, or can we learn from their mistakes how best to avoid our own?"--
Contents: Machine generated contents note: -- Contents -- Introduction -- PART I: THE PROBLEM -- 1. The Nature of Our Contemporary Condition -- 2. The Question of Empire -- PART II: THE PARALLELS -- 3. The Glory that was Rome -- 4. Spain: The Rise and Fall of a Dynastic Empire -- 5. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire -- 6. Russian Empires Old and New -- 7. Lessons of Empire -- PART III: THE RECKONING -- 8. A New Rome on the Potomac? -- 9. Towards a Better America -- Notes.