From the author of The Origins of the Korean War, this book “faces West” to focus on the importance of the Pacific Coast in a boldly original reinterpretation of the American ascendency.

America is the first world power to inhabit an immense land mass open at both ends to the world’s two largest oceans—the Atlantic and the Pacific. This gives America a great competitive advantage often overlooked by Atlanticists, whose focus remains overwhelmingly fixed on America’s relationship with Europe. Bruce Cumings challenges the Atlanticist perspective in this innovative new history, arguing that relations with Asia influenced our history greatly.

Cumings chronicles how the movement westward, from the Middle West to the Pacific, has shaped America’s industrial, technological, military, and global rise to power. He unites domestic and international history, international relations, and political economy to demonstrate how technological change and sharp economic growth have created a truly bicoastal national economy that has led the world for more than a century. Cumings emphasizes the importance of American encounters with Mexico, the Philippines, and the nations of East Asia. The result is a wonderfully integrative history that advances a strong argument for a dual approach to American history incorporating both Atlanticist and Pacificist perspectives.

"Bruce Cumings traces American history along its inexorable drive westward, not merely to California and the limits of the continent's frontier but all the way to the Pacific Rim. He argues that such westward outreach has transformed America's character and helped to write its destiny, if not always for the good. . . . To make his case, Mr. Cumings . . . has produced a sprawling narrative, with shifting subthemes and flashes back and forth in time."—Arthur Herman, The Wall Street Journal - Wall Street Journal

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"This is nevertheless one of the richest and most thoughtful books of American history I have read in a long time. . . . Cumings’s book is both a timely and splendidly enjoyable read."—Dominic Sandbrook, Literary Review 

"This book is a history of how the West has transformed America. It looks at our country’s rise in power from a Pacific view."—Theodore Scott, 1776 Magazine - 1776 Magazine

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“The story of America’s rapid unrolling of the exceptionalist carpet is very well told by Mr. Cumings. . . .[He] writes marvelously. . . .A lively rattlebag of a history of the Pacific slope and how the Pacific Ocean came to be an American Lake.”--Economist

"Selected as one of the Atlantic's 25 Best Books of the Year 2009 " - Atlantic Monthly

"Bruce Cumings, in this beautifully written book . . . presents consistently stunning analysis of a mountain of dascinating data."—James I. Matray, American Historical Review - American Historical Review