This volume spans 1914–1939 to provide a concise interpretation of the role the United States played in the origins of the Second World War. It synthesizes recent scholarship about interwar international politics while also presenting an original interpretation of the sources of American policy.

The book shows how the drive for international reform, beginning with Woodrow Wilson, reflected both America’s unusual power and its fears about maintaining its domestic freedoms in a world dominated by arms races and the threat of war. The American desire to reform or to escape from the existing international system reshaped Europe’s balance of power from 1914–1929, leaving it precarious and unlikely to produce lasting stability. America’s power continued to loom globally even as it retreated into isolationism, contributing to the West’s appeasement of Hitler, and to his sense that time was running out to achieve European hegemony. The epilogue analyzes how the United States affected the strategic choices made by Great Britain, Nazi Germany, and Japan from 1939–1941 that globalized the conflict.

This book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students in history and political science, especially courses focused on World War II and the history of U.S. foreign relations.