Americans have been increasing their global power and influence steadily for the past four centuries. Even from the time of the Puritans, America was no shining "city upon a hill" but an engine of commercial and territorial expansion that drove Native Americans, French, Spanish, Russian and ultimately even British power from the North American continent. By the early 18th century, Puritan New England had entered "the emerging secular and commercial...

In the wake of the September 2001 attacks and the US-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East and West. Over the course of her many years of...

"A timely, provocative expose of our political and business leadership's deep ties to China: a network of people who believe they are doing the right thing-at a great often hidden cost to our society"-- In recent years relations between China and the United States shifted from enthusiastic economic partners, to wary frenemies, to open rivals. Stone Fish traces the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party's influence in America. He explains how many...