Most Americans don’t think of their government as an empire, but in fact the United States has been steadily expanding its control of overseas territories since the turn of the twentieth century. Now, through political intimidation and more than 700 military bases worldwide, the U.S. holds sway over an area that dwarfs the great empires of world history.

Eland shows the concept of empire is wholly contrary to the principles of both liberals and conservatives and makes a mockery of the Founding Fathers’ vision of a free republic. Eland also warns that in recent years, “blowback” and the enormous expansion of domestic federal power resulting from this overextended empire have begun to threaten the American homeland itself and curtail the very liberties these interventions were meant to protect.

The author delivers a penetrating argument which exposes the imperial motives behind interventionist U.S. policy and questions the historical assumptions on which it is based.