From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America's World Role

By Fareed Zakaria

Categories: History, Politics & Social Sciences

From Wealth to Power (1998) is Fareed Zakaria's study of why the United States was slow to turn its economic strength into global power in the late nineteenth century, based on his doctoral work at Harvard. Zakaria compares periods when American leaders sought expansion with the strength of the federal government at the time. He argues that the weakness of the central state, rather than public reluctance, held back American power until the presidency grew stronger at the century's end.