Ark of the Liberties Why American Freedom Matters to the World

Ark of the Libertiesrecovers a long-forgotten success story: America's lengthy and laudatory history of expanding world liberty. Our country's decline in popularity over the past eight years has been nothing short of astonishing, and with wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer reminds us why this great nation had so far to fall. His sweeping history brims with new insights about America's enduringly favorable relationship with the Middle East; why Woodrow Wilson's presidency deserves reappraisal; the Democratic Party's underappreciated foreign-policy achievements; and how the country's long history of successfully advocating for and exporting liberty touches immediately on the choices we face in Iraq today.Ark of the Libertiesromps through centuries of historyfrom America's start as a fascinating virgin promised land to its present position as a world superpowerall the while reminding us of the necessity and nobility of our nation's global ambitions.

Ted Widmer directs the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. He was a foreign-policy speechwriter and senior adviser to President Clinton and is Senior Research Fellow of the New America Foundation.