Awards

• Winner of APSA Foreign Policy Section Best Book Award 2022 (United States)

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9780674248663

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Reviews

You really ought to read it...It is a tour de force...While Wertheim is not the first to expose isolationism as a carefully constructed myth, he does so with devastating effect. Most of all, he helps his readers understand that 'so long as the phantom of isolationism is held to be the most grievous sin, all is permitted.' -- Andrew J. Bacevich * The Nation * For almost 80 years now, historians and diplomats have sought not only to describe America's swift advance to global primacy but also to explain it...Any writer wanting to make a novel contribution either has to have evidence for a new interpretation, or at least be making an older argument in some improved and eye-catching way. Stephen Wertheim's Tomorrow, the World does both...[An] estimable book. -- Paul Kennedy * Wall Street Journal * The only recent book to explore U.S. elites' decision to become the world's primary power in the early 1940s-a profoundly important choice that has affected the lives of billions of people throughout the globe...Contributes to the effort to transform U.S. foreign policy by giving pro-restraint Americans a usable past. Though Tomorrow, the World is not a polemic, its implications are invigorating...Wertheim opens space for Americans to reexamine their own history and ask themselves whether primacy has ever really met their interests. -- Daniel Bessner * New Republic * In writing the history of the country's decision to embrace a militarist vision of world order-and to do so, counterintuitively, through the creation of the United Nations-Wertheim provides an importantly revisionist account of U.S. foreign policy in the 1940s, one that helps us think anew about internationalism today...The contemporary stakes of Wertheim's work are plainly apparent...A reminder of just how strange it is that Americans have come to see military supremacy as a form of selfless altruism, as a gift to the world. -- Sam Lebovic * Boston Review * Stephen Wertheim isn't only a great historian of American foreign policy. He uses history to offer a critique of American foreign policy that Americans desperately need now. -- Peter Beinart, author of <i>The Icarus Syndrome</i> How did the United States acquire the will to lead the world? How did primacy come to be the natural posture of America's policy elite? In this groundbreaking new history, Stephen Wertheim overturns our existing understanding of the emergence of American global dominance. A work of brilliantly original historical scholarship that will transform the way we think about the past, the present, and the future. -- Adam Tooze, author of <i>Crashed</i> Americans now believe global leadership is their birthright; this splendid book uncovers the origins of that conviction. Wertheim's detailed analysis of strategic planning before and during World War II shows that the pursuit of global primacy was a conscious choice, made by a foreign policy elite that equated 'internationalism' with the active creation of a world order based on U.S. military preponderance. Myths about the seductive dangers of 'isolationism' helped marginalize alternative perspectives, leaving armed dominance and military interventionism as the default settings for U.S. foreign policy. A carefully researched and beautifully written account, Tomorrow, the World sheds new light on a critical period in U.S. history and reminds us that internationalism can take many different forms. -- Stephen M. Walt, author of <i>The Hell of Good Intentions</i> How did the idea of American military supremacy come to be understood as essential and inevitable? In this important and beautifully crafted revisionist history, Stephen Wertheim shows the way a foreign policy consensus in favor of American predominance was forged as Hitler ransacked Europe. It became an assumed necessity after World War II, and later fueled military build-up and ongoing armed conflict. By revealing the contingent path of American global militarism, Wertheim makes an urgent and overdue reassessment possible. -- Mary L. Dudziak, author of <i>War Time</i> Wertheim...details the thinking behind America's pursuit of global dominance from the 1940s to the present day in this impeccably researched debut history...This fine-grained account sheds new light on an era and a worldview too often obscured by gauzy patriotism. * Publishers Weekly * Wertheim provides an important historical corrective to the notion that the United States sleepwalked into global supremacy...An important read. -- Charles Dunst * LSE Review of Books * Excellent...An important contribution to the history of U.S. foreign policy, and it is also relevant to contemporary debates about the proper U.S. role in the world. -- Daniel Larson * American Conservative * Even readers who question Wertheim's premises or differ from him on current policy will find much to learn in a concise, jargon-free study grounded on careful research. -- William Anthony Hay * Law & Liberty * One does not need to be universally opposed to all of American policy since the Second World War to see the immense value of this book in showing the ideological lineage we have inherited that distorts how we talk about Grand Strategy through the present. -- Christopher Mott * Global Security Review * In the wake of [WWII], decision makers regarded military restraint not as a virtue but as a recipe for chaos. Intervention was seen as inevitable, and isolationism became a dirty word. Politicians debated particular engagements, but they rarely questioned America's role as global cop...But as Wertheim reminds us, foreign policy elites chose to take on this role, and they can choose to leave it behind. -- Fiona Harrigan * Reason * A stimulating revisionist view that sees the move to world dominance as a conscious choice. * Choice *

Excellent...An important contribution to the history of U.S. foreign policy, and it is also relevant to contemporary debates about the proper U.S. role in the world. -- Daniel Larson * American Conservative * Wertheim...details the thinking behind America's pursuit of global dominance from the 1940s to the present day in this impeccably researched debut history...This fine-grained account sheds new light on an era and a worldview too often obscured by gauzy patriotism. * Publishers Weekly * How did the idea of American military supremacy come to be understood as essential and inevitable? In this important and beautifully crafted revisionist history, Stephen Wertheim shows the way a foreign policy consensus in favor of American predominance was forged as Hitler ransacked Europe. It became an assumed necessity after World War II, and later fueled military build-up and ongoing armed conflict. By revealing the contingent path of American global militarism, Wertheim makes an urgent and overdue reassessment possible. -- Mary L. Dudziak, author of <i>War Time</i> Americans now believe global leadership is their birthright; this splendid book uncovers the origins of that conviction. Wertheim's detailed analysis of strategic planning before and during World War II shows that the pursuit of global primacy was a conscious choice, made by a foreign policy elite that equated 'internationalism' with the active creation of a world order based on U.S. military preponderance. Myths about the seductive dangers of 'isolationism' helped marginalize alternative perspectives, leaving armed dominance and military interventionism as the default settings for U.S. foreign policy. A carefully researched and beautifully written account, Tomorrow, the World sheds new light on a critical period in U.S. history and reminds us that internationalism can take many different forms. -- Stephen M. Walt, author of <i>The Hell of Good Intentions</i> How did the United States acquire the will to lead the world? How did primacy come to be the natural posture of America's policy elite? In this groundbreaking new history, Stephen Wertheim overturns our existing understanding of the emergence of American global dominance. A work of brilliantly original historical scholarship that will transform the way we think about the past, the present, and the future. -- Adam Tooze, author of <i>Crashed</i> Stephen Wertheim isn't only a great historian of American foreign policy. He uses history to offer a critique of American foreign policy that Americans desperately need now. -- Peter Beinart, author of <i>The Icarus Syndrome</i> In writing the history of the country's decision to embrace a militarist vision of world order-and to do so, counterintuitively, through the creation of the United Nations-Wertheim provides an importantly revisionist account of U.S. foreign policy in the 1940s, one that helps us think anew about internationalism today...The contemporary stakes of Wertheim's work are plainly apparent...A reminder of just how strange it is that Americans have come to see military supremacy as a form of selfless altruism, as a gift to the world. -- Sam Lebovic * Boston Review * The only recent book to explore U.S. elites' decision to become the world's primary power in the early 1940s-a profoundly important choice that has affected the lives of billions of people throughout the globe...Contributes to the effort to transform U.S. foreign policy by giving pro-restraint Americans a usable past. Though Tomorrow, the World is not a polemic, its implications are invigorating...Wertheim opens space for Americans to reexamine their own history and ask themselves whether primacy has ever really met their interests. -- Daniel Bessner * New Republic * You really ought to read it...It is a tour de force...While Wertheim is not the first to expose isolationism as a carefully constructed myth, he does so with devastating effect. Most of all, he helps his readers understand that 'so long as the phantom of isolationism is held to be the most grievous sin, all is permitted.' -- Andrew J. Bacevich * The Nation *

Stephen Wertheim isn't only a great historian of American foreign policy. He uses history to offer a critique of American foreign policy that Americans desperately need now.--Peter Beinart, author of The Icarus Syndrome How did the United States acquire the will to lead the world? How did primacy come to be the natural posture of America's policy elite? In this groundbreaking new history, Stephen Wertheim overturns our existing understanding of the emergence of American global dominance. A work of brilliantly original historical scholarship that will transform the way we think about the past, the present, and the future.--Adam Tooze, author of Crashed How did the idea of American military supremacy come to be understood as essential and inevitable? In this important and beautifully crafted revisionist history, Stephen Wertheim shows the way a foreign policy consensus in favor of American predominance was forged as Hitler ransacked Europe. It became an assumed necessity after World War II, and later fueled military build-up and ongoing armed conflict. By revealing the contingent path of American global militarism, Wertheim makes an urgent and overdue reassessment possible.--Mary Dudziak, author of War Time Americans now believe global leadership is their birthright; this splendid book uncovers the origins of that conviction. Wertheim's detailed analysis of strategic planning before and during World War II shows that the pursuit of global primacy was a conscious choice, made by a foreign policy elite that equated 'internationalism' with the active creation of a world order based on U.S. military preponderance. Myths about the seductive dangers of 'isolationism' helped marginalize alternative perspectives, leaving armed dominance and military interventionism as the default settings for U.S. foreign policy. A carefully researched and beautifully written account, Tomorrow, the World sheds new light on a critical period in U.S. history and reminds us that internationalism can take many different forms.--Stephen M. Walt, author of The Hell of Good Intentions

Author Information

Stephen Wertheim is Deputy Director of Research and Policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, New York Review of Books, New York Times, and Washington Post.

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