This best-selling text presents the best synthesis of current scholarship available to emphasize the theme of expansionism and its manifestations.

1. Embryo of Empire: Americans and the World Before 1789. 2. Independence, Expansion, and War, 1789-1815. 3. Extending and Preserving the Empire, 1815-1848. 4. Expansionism, Sectionalism, and Civil War, 1848-1865. 5. Establishing Regional Hegemony and Global Power, 1865-1895. 6. Imperialist Leap, 1895-1900. 7. Managing, Policing, and Extending the Empire, 1900-1914. 8. War, Peace, and Revolution in the Time of Wilson, 1914-1920. Appendix: Makers of American Foreign Relations. General Bibliography. 6. Diplomatic Crossroad: The Maine, McKinley, and War, 1898. The Venezuelan Crisis of 1895. American Men of Empire. Each in His Own Way: Cleveland and McKinley Confront Cuba Libre, 1895-1898. The Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War. Men versus "Aunties": The Debate over Empire in the United States. Imperial Collisions in Asia: The Philippine Insurrection and the Open Door in China. The Elbows of a World Power, 1895-1900.