A nation among nations : America's place in world history /

Includes index

1. The ocean world and the beginnings of American history -- The island world -- Going global -- People from the sea -- Atlantic Creoles -- The plantation complex -- 2. The "Great War" and the American Revolution -- Global empires -- A continuous war, 1754-1783 -- 1783 -- The age of Atlantic revolutions -- A new nation in a dangerous world -- Foreign affairs and partisan politics -- A new nationalism -- 3. Freedom in an age of nation-making -- 1848 -- The birth of new nations -- The federative crisis -- Territoriality and liberal nationalism -- The republican party -- Remembering nationalism and forgetting liberalism -- 4. An empire among empires -- Ahab and empire -- Being the whale -- The rhetoric of empire -- A global strategy -- 1898 -- Revolution and empire -- Making the world safe for empire -- 5. The industrial world and the transformation of liberalism -- The two revolutions and social citizenship -- Paths away from Laissez-Faire -- Professional risk and the moral imagination -- The reform international and the World Wide Web -- Common challenges and local politics -- 6. Global history and America today.

Contends that American history must be placed in a global context, explaining that the obstacles being faced by the United States have been overcome in the past by other countries whose examples can impart powerful lessons.