America, Empire of Liberty

Thomas Jefferson envisioned the United States as a great "empire of liberty." In this single-volume history of the United States, David Reynolds takes Jefferson's phrase as a key to the American saga. He examines how the anti-empire of 1776 became the greatest superpower the world has seen and asks difficult questions about the cost of American greatness, from slavery to the War on Terror. Written with verve, insight, and humor, America, Empire of Libertyis a magisterial depiction of America in all its grandeur and contradictions.

David Reynolds is Professor of International History at the University of Cambridge. He has held visiting positions at Harvard and at Nihon University in Tokyo and is the author of ten books, including In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War, which was awarded the Wolfson Prize, Britain's highest honor for the writing of history, and was selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in Cambridge, England, and spends his summers in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.