Introduction: Culture and causality -- A global civilization -- Culture, commerce, and diplomacy : creating an international identity -- Europe I : republican mirages -- Europe II : barbarian survivals -- The one and the many : race, culture, and civilization -- The promise of local equality : assimilating African- Americans, Chinese, and Native Americans -- Beyond Orientalism : explaining other worlds -- Empire and civilization -- International politics -- The future of international relations -- Conclusion: Culture as capability
Summary
Why did the United States become a global power? Frank Ninkovich shows that a cultural predisposition for thinking in global terms blossomed in the late nineteenth century, making possible the rise to world power as American liberals of the time took a wide-ranging interest in the world. Of little practical significance during a period when isolationism reigned supreme in U.S. foreign policy, this rich body of thought would become the cultural foundation of twentieth-century American internationalism
