Provides essential background to understanding the roots of contemporary U.S. foreign policy. Covers the period from the War of Independence to World War I, and questions what is unique in the American experience by focusing on themes such as the “new diplomacyâ€ù of the Founding Fathers, the tension between Jeffersonian idealism and Hamiltonian realism, the intersection of Manifest Destiny and slavery, the pattern of U.S. relations with weaker neighbors including Native Americans and Latin Americans, the clash with European imperialism, the meaning of Wilsonian idealism, and the beginning of the special relationship with China and Japan.