On the cusp of a new millennium, are we Americans prepared to accept the imperial burden that history has trust upon us?

Looking back, the author argues that writ large, America, despite its internal flaws and external blunders, has borne its imperial burden with a singular sense of responsibility. America has not sought to dominate other peoples and has treated its former adversaries with compassion. As the preeminent world power, says Lefever, America has an inescapable responsibility.

He takes on assorted isolationists, "declinists," multilateralists, and neo-Wilsonian interventionists, all of whom, in his view, fail to recognize the nuances of this responsibility.