Colossus : The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson ranges across the entire history of America’s foreign entanglements and delves into all the dimensions of American power—military, economic, cultural, and political. The result is a book whose conclusions are as convincing, and troubling, as they are original. Ferguson demonstrates that America has always been an empire in denial and shows the fateful consequences of its special brand of imperialism. He examines the challenges to the United States from its principal rivals, the European Union and China, and offers a compelling analysis of the connection between the country’s domestic economic health and its foreign affairs—the bottom line of imperialism, American style. Colossusis a peerless reckoning with American power that should be read by any thinking citizen of this unspoken empire.

Niall Ferguson is professor of history at Harvard University, senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and senior fellow of Stanford University-'s Hoover Institution. His previous books include The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, The Cash Nexus, and Empire.