For more than a century, Americans have wrestled with a recurring question: What happens when a nation built on liberty suddenly discovers it holds the weight of global power? History tells us this is not a new dilemma. It surfaced dramatically in 1898—and it has returned again today.
For nearly a century after 1815, the United States grew and prospered in relative isolation. Protected by two oceans and focused inward, America avoided entangling alliances while expanding economically, territorially, and culturally. That illusion of isolation ended abruptly with a short but shattering war—the Spanish-American. . .