Promised Land, Crusader State

Promised Land, Crusader State is an iconoclastic reinterpretation of the traditions that have shaped U.S. foreign policy from 1776 to the present. Looking back over two centuries, Walter McDougall draws a striking contrast between America as Promised Land, a vision that dominated the diplomatic wisdom through the nineteenth century, and a contrary vision of America as Crusader State, which inspired twentieth-century decision making and reached its fulfillment in the Vietnam War. To this day, these two visions battle for control of the soul of American foreign policy.