In the late 19th century, the world was dominated by imperial European great powers, happily carving up between them any available territories in Africa and Asia. It offers a bold and persuasive reinterpretation of how the US rose to global pre-eminence and along the way it recasts the entire story of how the world staggered from one conflagration to the next. Adam Tooze's new book takes us back a century, to the time when this was all very new. We have lived with this kind of rhetoric for a long time now, so long that it seems to have been with us forever. His speech was a reaffirmation of the US as the indispensable nation, destined to lead the world. "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being," said President Obama at West Point last month.
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