Book Talk with Robert Kagan: The Ghost at the Feast

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Join Hudson Institute Distinguished Fellow Walter Russell Mead for a discussion with historian Robert Kagan on his new book, The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900–1941.

About the Book

At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was one of the world’s richest, most populous, and most technologically advanced nations. It was also a nation divided along numerous fault lines, with conflicting aspirations and concerns pulling it in different directions. America’s resulting intervention in World War II marked the beginning of a new era for the United States and for the world.

In The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900–1941, Robert Kagan examines America’s rise to global superpower—from the Spanish–American War to World War II. Brilliant and insightful, The Ghost at the Feast shows both the perils of American withdrawal from the world and the price of international responsibility.