Amid a Warring World

The years from 1775 to 1815 could be called the "critical period" of American foreign relations. At no time in American history was the existence of the republic in greater physical peril. Questions of foreign policy dominated American public life in a way unequalled until World War II. From the American Revolution through the War of 1812, the problem for American diplomats and foreign policymakers was to preserve the United States, both as an independent nation and as a republic, in a decidedly unequal contest with the great powers. According to historian Robert W. Smith, the question of American power lay at the heart of this debate over independence. The controversy over the power of the United States to reshape a hostile world remains as central today as in 1776. Book jacket.