In the shadows of the American century : : the rise and decline of US global power / / Alfred W. McCoy.

• VerfasserIn: McCoy, Alfred W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Chicago, Illinois : : Haymarket Books,, 2017.
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Dispatch Books
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (361 pages) :; illustrations, maps.

The award-winning historian delivers a "brilliant and deeply informed" analysis of American power from the Spanish-American War to the Trump Administration (New York Journal of Books). In this sweeping and incisive history of US foreign relations, historian Alfred McCoy explores America's rise as a world power from the 1890s through the Cold War, and its bid to extend its hegemony deep into the twenty-first century. Since American dominance reached its apex at the close of the Cold War, the nation has met new challenges that it is increasingly unequipped to handle. From the disastrous invasion of Iraq to the failure of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fracturing military alliances, and the blundering nationalism of Donald Trump, McCoy traces US decline in the face of rising powers such as China. He also offers a critique of America's attempt to maintain its position through cyberwar, covert intervention, client elites, psychological torture, and worldwide surveillance.

Table of Contents

Introduction. US global power and me -- Part I. Understanding the US empire -- Ch. 1. The world island and the rise of America -- Ch. 2. "Our S.O.B.s" : America and the autocrats -- Ch. 3. Covert netherworld -- Part II. US strategies for survival. -- Ch. 4. A global surveillance state -- Ch. 5. Torture and the eclipse of empires -- Ch. 6. Beyond bayonets and battleships : the Pentagon's wonder weapons -- Part III. Dynamics of US decline -- Ch. 7. Grandmasters of the great game -- Ch. 8. Five scenarios for the end of the American century.