This book traces the main debates and dissent in US foreign relations during a broad swath of history, from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. My theme is establishment dissenters. My orientation is catholic in that those of progressive and conservative bent are treated with equal seriousness. I aim to explain them in the context of their respective eras. Sometimes the dissenters and their lines were firm and clear, other times meandering or uncertain. In either case, I track the careers of prominent dissenters in the hope of better evaluating the nature of US international behavior at key junctures. Additionally, I try here to identify recurrent patterns of dissent – or strands – that have transcended particular questions and specific personalities. These strands are striking as they ran from the early days of the fragile American republic onward, still evident in one or another form in the twenty-first century, when the United States occupies the position of preeminent global power. The most stubborn line of dissent, with implications for today, has sprung from anxiety over the material and political costs of empire. Other dissents, not always compatible with the foregoing or with each other, have been rooted in ideas of exigent justice, realpolitik, and moral duty beyond borders.

My topic has particular bearing on our time when so much “triumphalist” literature has appeared on the US role as sole superpower.