What We Are Reading Today: America in the World

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Updated 26 October 2023
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What We Are Reading Today: America in the World

Authors: Jeffrey A. Engel, Mark Atwood Lawrence, Andrew Preston

How should America wield its power beyond its borders? Should it follow grand principles or act on narrow self-interest? 
Should it work in concert with other nations or avoid entangling alliances? 
“America in the World” captures the voices and viewpoints of some of the most provocative, eloquent, and influential people who participated in these and other momentous debates. 
Now fully revised and updated, this anthology brings together primary texts spanning a century and a half of US foreign relations, illuminating how Americans have been arguing about the nation’s role in the world since its emergence as a world power in the late 19th century.
It features more than 250 primary-source documents, reflecting a range of views. The book includes two new chapters on the Trump years and the return of great power rivalries under Biden. It shares the perspectives of presidents, secretaries and generals as well as those of poets, songwriters, clergy, columnists, and novelists. 


What We Are Reading Today: Elites and Democracy by Hugo Drotchon

Updated 08 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Elites and Democracy by Hugo Drotchon

A central paradox of democracies is that they are always ruled by elites. What can democracy mean in this context? Today, it is often said that a populist revolt against elites is driving democratic politics throughout the West.

But in “Elites and Democracy,” Hugo Drochon argues that democracy is more accurately and usefully understood as a perpetual struggle among competing elites—between rising elites and ruling elites.

Real political change comes from the interaction between social movements and elite political institutions such as parties. But, although true democracy—the rule of the people—may never be achieved, striving toward it can bring about worthwhile democratic results.

Moving away from conceptions of democracy, “Elites and Democracy” develops a dynamic theory of democracy.

At the turn of the 20th century, Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, and Robert Michels put forward “elite” theories of democracy and gave us terms such as the “ruling class” and “elites” itself.