The true flag : Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the birth of American empire
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat?until the cycle begins again. Revealing a piece of forgotten history, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the twentieth century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. That prospect thrilled some Americans. It horrified others. Their debate gripped the nation. The country?s best-known political and intellectual leaders took sides. Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge, and William Randolph Hearst pushed for imperial expansion; Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and Andrew Carnegie preached restraint. Only once before?in the period when the United States was founded?have so many brilliant Americans so eloquently debated a question so fraught with meaning for all humanity."--Amazon.com.