From the author of the immensely influential and best-selling Of Paradise and Power— a major reevaluation of America’s place in the world from the colonial era to the turn of the twentieth century.

Robert Kagan strips away the myth of America’s isolationist tradition and reveals a more complicated reality: that Americans have been increasing their global power and influence steadily for the past four centuries. Even from the time of the Puritans, he reveals, America was no shining “city up on a hill” but an engine of commercial and territorial expansion that drove Native Americans, as well as French, Spanish, Russian, and ultimately even British power, from the North American continent. Even before the birth of the nation, Americans believed they were destined for global leadership. Underlying their ambitions, Kagan argues, was a set of ideas and ideals about the world and human nature. He focuses on the Declaration of Independence as the document that firmly established the American conviction that the inalienable rights of all mankind transcended territorial borders and blood ties. American nationalism, he shows, was always internationalist at its core. He also makes a startling discovery: that the Civil War and the abolition of slavery—the fulfillment of the ideals of the Declaration—were the decisive turning point in the history of American foreign policy as well. Kagan's brilliant and comprehensive reexamination of early American foreign policy makes clear why America, from its very beginning, has been viewed worldwide not only as a wellspring of political, cultural, and social revolution, but as an ambitious and, at times, dangerous nation.

罗伯特•卡根（Robert Kagan），美国历史学家、外交政策批评家，现任布鲁金斯研究所高级研究员（2010年9月至今）、美国乔治敦大学历史学副教授。曾担任卡内基国际和平基金会高级助理长达13年。多次被《外交政策》杂志评为“全球顶级百位思想家”。卡根曾因《危险的国家》于2007年入围莱昂内尔•吉尔伯图书奖（Lionel Gelber Prize），2008年获得约瑟夫•雷普戈德图书奖（Joseph Lepgold Prize）。

1958年9月26日生于希腊雅典。耶鲁大学历史系毕业，获得哈佛大学约翰•肯尼迪政府管理学院公共政策硕士，美国大学华盛顿特区分校美国史博士。著有《历史的回归与梦想的终结》（The Return of History and the End of Dreams，Knopf, 2008)）和畅销欧美并被纽约时报评为畅销书的《天堂与实力》（Of Paradise and Power，Knopf, 2003）等。