America's Road to Empire surveys and analyzes United States' foreign relations from independence in 1776 to its entry into WWI in 1917. Using primary source materials and case studies, the book explores the role of racism the search for absolute security, the ways in which the US trampled on the liberties of their neigbors and how the myth of American Exceptionalism persisted, despite the unexceptional nature of US policy. Drawing on archives and newspapers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Mexico, Piero Gleijeses provides analytical overview alongside primary examples to examine overlooked aspects of US foreign policy, particularly those concerning marginalized populations. Incorporating international research in multiple languages, America's Road to Empire illuminates the rise of the United States to global power amidst a contest of rival empires. Tracing America's initial anti-colonial struggle for its own independence, to later conquest of distant dominions, it shows how American leaders pursued the fantasy of perfect security through expansion across a continent first, and then an ocean. A highly original account of the United States' rise to power, this is an important back for all readers interested in United States foreign relations up to the advent of WWI. Book jacket.