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How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy
 
 
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How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy [Hardcover]

Bevin Alexander (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

July 5, 2005
At last, a historian tells the truth about America’s role in the world—refuting the lies of anti-American propagandists.

Left-wing critics—both at home and abroad—relish blasting our country for being the world’s sole superpower, or even an “imperialist” power.

But as acclaimed military historian Bevin Alexander shows in How America Got It Right, these criticisms are completely off the mark. Alexander reveals how the United States has done and continues to do exactly the right thing in military and foreign affairs. As the world’s dominant political force and military power, he says, we are the only nation that will actually go into the world and strike down evil. And we must not shirk that responsibility—especially because we cannot rely on our so-called allies to defend our freedoms.

Alexander tells the dramatic and sometimes surprising story of how, from the American Revolution to the War on Terror, America’s core principles and ideals have shaped our march to economic, military, and political supremacy.

How America Got It Right reveals:

•How in the War on Terror we’re simply repeating the process of World War II—going wherever we have to in the world to destroy those who threaten our safety

•How unpatriotic critics of American foreign policy fail to understand the clear threats we now grapple with—but how our leaders get it

•How America boldly—and correctly—asserted this nation’s unique status to the world long before we had the military strength to back up our daring proclamations

•How, at almost every turn, our leaders demonstrated remarkable foresight that enabled America to become the world’s dominant power

•How a policy of securing other people’s freedom is in fact grounded in American tradition, not a dangerous departure from precedent

As Americans debate what our nation’s role in world affairs should be, Alexander shows how—far from overreaching or bumbling into situations in which we shouldn’t be involved—the United States has properly embraced its role as world leader. Covering more than two centuries of history, How America Got It Right refutes those critics who suggest that America has somehow gone off course or overextended itself.

Indeed, according to Alexander, our government has got it right. America’s critics have got it wrong, because what they are hoping for—peace without a price—will never come to pass.



We saw early in our colonial history that—because of our isolation from Europe, and because of the immense wealth and bounty of our land—we had the opportunity to build the greatest, freest, and most prosperous nation ever to arise on earth. We spent the first century and a quarter of our independent existence in creating this great nation. But to protect this treasure, we found that we needed to establish the world’s paramount military structure and become the world’s preeminent political power. This book is the story of America’s march to economic, military, and political supremacy, and the ideals that have guided us along the way. —From How America Got It Right


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this polemical, sometimes informative overview of U.S. military and diplomatic history from the French and Indian Wars to the war in Iraq, westward expansion was inevitable; the Mexican War was wise; slavery "did deflect and distort the dream," but the Civil War need not have been fought (though it did professionalize the army). After WWI "the United States took over responsibility from Britain for governing the world's oceans"; this expanded navy turned out to be crucial for winning WWII. Almost all nonexperts will learn something from Alexander's (How Wars Are Won) brisk and detailed accounts of 20th-century battles and diplomatic controversies, and his expertise on postwar China and Korea provides support for surprising arguments. As he approaches the present day, however, he sounds less sure than merely cocksure: "the United States had to go into Iraq," he writes, because "it set out to neutralize terrorism and tyrants." Readers who already think so will enjoy the book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This is a feel-good book for those who are convinced the U.S. role in world affairs has been consistently beneficial. Military historian Alexander's survey of more than two centuries of America's interactions with the world rejects the notion of the U.S. as an imperial power. Although he acknowledges major mistakes (slavery, Vietnam), Alexander asserts that America has never sought to conquer foreign peoples (that, of course, would be disputed by the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Mexicans of the Southwest). Americans, Alexander argues, have viewed themselves as an island nation protected by vast oceans that allowed us to develop our democratic institutions while avoiding the chronic warfare experienced by European states. In the twentieth century, that benign isolation was no longer tenable. Thus, America reluctantly became a world power, but with the primary goal of protecting its own liberty. In doing so, we have generally advanced the cause of liberty around the world. One need not be an America basher to see this work as a bit one-sided. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Forum; First Edition edition (July 5, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1400052882
  • ISBN-13: 978-1400052882
  • Product Dimensions: 15 x 1.1 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,936,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Alexander gets it right, May 25, 2006
This review is from: How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy (Hardcover)
This is an unabashedly unapologetic review of America's political and military rise to the foremost prominence in the world. That being said, Alexander is more than willing to acknowledge America's faults, both great and small, like slavery and Korean war. However, he doesn't dwell on them but sees America's history as an overall steady progress in the right direction. Many of the historical facts in the book will be familiar to anyone who studied American history, but Alexander manages to bring some fresh insights. Thanks to this, the book reads like a novel, and several chapters are veritable page turners. It's a history book that is a great entertaining read as well. I highly recommend it.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tour de Force, July 23, 2005
By 
Steve Iaco (northern new jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy (Hardcover)
This book is a tour de force examination of U.S. foreign policy as seen through the eyes of an esteemed military historian. Bevin Alexander argues persuasively that the U.S.'s bold initiatives in Iraq, Afghanistan and other theaters of the War on Terror are deeply rooted in the American experience. As it did in WW II, Alexander says, America is proving that it will go anywhere to defeat evil. Bush's assertion that the U.S. will never seek an international "permission slip" to defend our interests has its antecedents in the Senate's rejection of Wilson's League of Nations, which, Alexander says, represented a dangerous ceding of American sovereignty.

This is not a partisan tract; it's a history with practical application for today' situation. Alexander criticizes American administrations past and present for mistakes or indecision. But, he points out, on the overarching issues of foreign and military policy the U.S. has been right more often than not.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars True and accurate American history, October 8, 2006
This review is from: How America Got It Right: The U.S. March to Military and Political Supremacy (Hardcover)
Bevin Alexander delivers a summary of America's short yet rich history that would make any patriot proud. He details our history, but also describes the motivation for the things that occured in that history thereby explaining how the American character developed over the years. He isn't afraid to point out mistakes along the way, but the overall theme is that America is good and so are our intentions.

The 'blame America first' crowd will have a field day with this, but they will find it difficult to argue with history. Alexander points out that those who feel we are imperialists simply don't have the historical record to support that contention. Yes, there are some who may feel wronged by our actions but no one can argue that America has consistently been on the side of good whenever good came under attack. Even today, it seems as though the world is incapable of confronting bad people and bad governments without America taking the lead. This is just one of many truths that Alexander points out with flavor.

All in all, this book is well worth the reader's time. It's inspiring and educational and it's a welcome rendition of American history free from one-sided criticism and hatred of our past actions.
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