Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama
Categories: Politics & Social Sciences
Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama (2014) is a book by Stephen Sestanovich. Sestanovich traces American foreign policy from Truman to Obama, arguing that presidents alternate between ambitious maximalism and periods of retrenchment. He shows how each swing responds to the failures of the last and sets up the next debate over the proper scope of American power.
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- Fareed Zakaria: “This week's Book of the Week is Steven Sestanovich's "Maximalist." "America in the World from Truman to Obama." This is the best book I have read on American foreign policy in a long while. Sestanovich describes America's alternating tendency to get too involved and aggressive in the world and then retrench from it. He is partial to the maximalist posture, but the book is fair and balanced enough, to coin a phrase, that you can draw your own conclusions.”