Ark of the Liberties Why American Freedom Matters to the World [Paperback]

Ark of the Libertiesrecovers a long-forgotten success story: America's lengthy and laudatory history of expanding world liberty. Our country's decline in popularity over the past eight years has been nothing short of astonishing, and with wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer reminds us why this great nation had so far to fall. His sweeping history brims with new insights about America's enduringly favorable relationship with the Middle East; why Woodrow Wilson's presidency deserves reappraisal; the Democratic Party's underappreciated foreign-policy achievements; and how the country's long history of successfully advocating for and exporting liberty touches immediately on the choices we face in Iraq today.Ark of the Libertiesromps through centuries of historyfrom America's start as a fascinating virgin promised land to its present position as a world superpowerall the while reminding us of the necessity and nobility of our nation's global ambitions.

In this exploration of the United States' promotion of liberty across the globe, Ted Widmer offers an examination of our history that should influence the way we think about our place in the twenti-first-century world. At a time when we need to restore America's standing in so many places,Ark of the Libertiesshows us how we can do it if we remain true to our historic ideals. Bill Clinton

Ted Widmer wants to restore idealism's good name. In the spirit of an old-fashioned jeremiad, he summons his countrymen to return to their own highest standards and properly play their anointed role in the world. David M. Kennedy, The Washington Post

Widmer has written an ambitious account of the enduring global reach of America, whose uniqueness he attributes to the millennial outlook of the Europeans who first settled here. The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice

Widmer's book is both a primer and a call to faith of sorts--a historically lÃ.