War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hey, welcome to a special episode of Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And I'm really excited about today's show.

We, as you know, of course, we've been doing a World War II series for quite some time, but I'm going to interrupt that series and give you this interview with an author of a fantastic book that I just read. It's not really about World War II, but it's about American foreign policy and the history of military interventions in different parts of the world. So here's what it's about American foreign policy and the history of military interventions in different

parts of the world. So here's what it's about. It asked the question, what did it take for the

United States to become a global superpower? The answer lies in a missing chapter of American

foreign policy with stark lessons for today. The cutthroat world of international politics has always been dominated by great powers.

Yet no great power in the modern era has ever managed to achieve the kind of invulnerability

that comes from being completely supreme in its own neighborhood.

No great power, that is, except one, the United States.

The name of the book is We May Dominate the World. Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American

Colossus.

And I'll introduce the author and just admit it, but in this book, the author tells the

riveting story of how the United States became a regional hegemon in the century following

the Civil War.

By turns reluctant and ruthless, Americans squeeze their European rivals out of the

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