First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a World Power
Like Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club, Zimmermann's account  takes its readers deep into a small, captivating circle of  figures instrumental in shaping American thought and history: in  this case, the five men most responsible for making the United  States a major player on the international stage at the start of  the 20th century. The key players are Theodore Roosevelt, Henry  Cabot Lodge (Republican senator from Massachusetts), John Hay  (enigmatic secretary of state to McKinley and TR), Elihu Root  (hard-edged New York corporate attorney, later to serve as a  gruffly paternalistic colonial administrator), and naval  strategist Admiral Alfred T. Mahan. Mahan, perhaps the least  well-known of the five, emerges as the group's touchstone. An  ardent admirer of the standing British fleet and the British  colonial system it helped police, Mahan believed the United  States should institute similar military might to help  administer an American world view. He aggressively lobbied for  the establishment and maintenance of a large, well-funded navy  and for strict enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, with U.S.  domination of such strategically important outposts as Puerto  Rico, the Philippines and Guam. In this fascinating and engaging  account, Zimmermann (Origins of Catastrophe: Yugoslavia and Its  Destroyers), a former U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia), does a  brilliant job of showing how Mahan's views enabled the United  States to bootstrap up to the status of world colonial power  within the short space of just five years, from 1898 to 1903.  Illus. not seen by PW. (Oct.)  Forecast: The readers who made The Metaphysical Club and  Theodore Rex bestsellers are the ideal audience for this  outstanding history; if they learn of the book, expect healthy  sales.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.