A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic (American Beginnings, 1500-1900)

**__A Great and Rising Nation__ illuminates the unexplored early decades of the United States’ imperialist naval aspirations.** Conventional wisdom holds that, until the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States was a feeble player on the world stage, with an international presence rooted in commerce rather than military might. Michael A. Verney’s __A Great and Rising Nation__ flips this notion on its head, arguing that early US naval expeditions, often characterized as merely scientific, were in fact deeply imperialist. Circling the globe from the Mediterranean to South America and the Arctic, these voyages reflected the diverse imperial aspirations of the new republic, including commercial dominance in the Pacific World, religious empire in the Holy Land, proslavery expansion in South America, and diplomatic prestige in Europe. As Verney makes clear, the United States had global imperial aspirations far earlier than is commonly thought. "In the conventional wisdom, the young United States was weak, with no international posture or military. But as Michael Verney shows, early American naval expeditions, often characterized as merely exploratory, were fundamentally imperialist. These expeditions circled the globe and were backed by a wide range of domestic constituencies, including people who wanted to promote America as an evangelical beacon, a lucrative node in the slave trade, or the base of a conventional empire. Verney shows that early Americans-Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians, militarists and pacifists, abolitionists and slaveholders-all agreed that the country had an interest in showing the world its power"-- Provided by publisher Jeremiah Reynolds and the empire of knowledge -- The United States exploring expedition as Jacksonian capitalism -- The United States exploring expedition in popular culture -- The Dead Sea expedition and the empire of faith -- Proslavery explorations of South America -- Arctic exploration and US-UK rapprochement