Power and Connection: Imperial Histories of the United States in the World

Kramer argues for the utility of the "imperial" in placing the history of the US in a global context. Combining historiographic review, critique, and prescription, he suggests three necessary pursuits that the imperial facilitates: the study of the ways power operates through long-distance linkages; the mutual and uneven transformation of societies through these connections; and comparisons between large-scale systems of power and their histories. He proceeds to assess the prospects and limits of the imperial in US historiography across a variety of themes, offering along the way a copious review and analysis of a range of historical literature, both older and more recent.