Meticulously researched and masterfully conceived, The United States of Empire by journalist and historian James F. Dunn provides not only a timely but also an extensive sociological, political and historical look at the United States of America as it entered the First Word War. Bold in its premise and wide in its scope, the author leaves no stone unearthed as he parlays a neoclassic framework to gain momentum of a tale of American influence burgeoning and expanding, initiating a lively and readable debate that demands that readers begin viewing the past century in a whole new light. Subsequent to American involvement in the War to End All Wars, the US government's international protocol had been as a hemispheric power, but henceforth the US's impact became an escalating imperial force in the twentieth century. If you read one book on contemporary American history, make this the book.