The American Ascendancy by Michael H. Hunt pieces together the “historical puzzle” of how the United States has achieved its present ascendancy (Hunt 2). Hunt explains how the U.S. involvement over the last century and a half had critical effect on the current status of the country. Many people overlook the past century of events which hold the answers to why such a weak country has been able to rise to one of the most powerful nations and been able to remain there, like the United States has over the years.
Hunt begins his book in the late nineteenth century by explaining the foundations of America. It was during this time that countries all across the world were seeking to strengthen their national identity and confront economic change, and enemy powers. The reasons behind the American Ascendancy are detailed out in this book as “accumulating the economic might, the development of a keen sense of national purpose, and the rise of a formidable state with a knack for pursuing international goals with deliberation and patience” (Hunt 308). Every development in national history, U.S. leaders would take steps that aligned national ambitions to resources that were continuing to move the U.S. closer to their desired global position. The United States did not just emerge out of nowhere with new ideas and become this great and powerful nation, it took the paths of other countries to help guide the U.S. in the right direction. For example,
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From the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century the Americans would