Colossus by Niall Ferguson

At first glance, Colossus appears to be answering one simple question, "Is America an empire?"

The answer that streams back is a resounding yes, however, the inherent problem is the negative connotations that the word "empire" brings up. Empires have become synonymous with evil, therefore, nobody dares say the "e" word-America's own inhabitants and current president deny this label.

Niall Ferguson, the economic historian, tracks the rise of the United States from its humble beginnings after the Revolutionary War and up to its present struggle in Iraq where America has been once again reluctant to take the role of "pax Americana."

Ferguson argues that an American empire has the potential to do tremendous good with its bountiful resources. Prime examples of an effective U.S. intervention are found in Germany and Japan after World War II. The U.S. aid of money via the Marshall Plan, a prolonged manpower presence (10 years in West Germany and 7 years in Japan) and several other factors such as NATO helped prime the economic pump of these once devastated countries.

This is in sharp contrast to the failure that has been the norm for U.S. involvement in most countries that recently have included Liberia, Rwanda and Haiti. The main reasons for those failures the author argues are "a fatal combination of inadequate resources for nonmilitary purposes and a truncated time horizon."

On the surface "Colossus" is a persuasive history book that points to one inexorable conclusion: the United States is an empire. But the core of the text is a critique of U.S. foreign policy and a dissertation that encourages the United States to use it empire status to better the world and inevitably itself. He states, "Toppling three tyrannies within four years is no mean achievement by the standards of any past global environment.

Since 1999 Slobodan Milosevic, the Taliban, and now Saddam Hussein all have been overthrown." The author then quickly points out details, at times excruciating to bear, that the aftermath is often a greater disaster story after an U.S. intervention. Ferguson says, "The United States has invaded and occupied many countries over the past two centuries. Yet in terms of their economic and political institutions relatively few of these have evolved into anything remotely resembling miniature Americas."

Ferguson observes three deficits that "explain why the U.S. has been a less effective empire than its British predecessor. They are its economic deficit, its manpower deficit and-the most serious of the three-is attention deficit."

The author's historic arguments are cogent for an "anti-imperial imperial" United States to rule with a benevolent hand for its own sake and the world's. He invokes history lessons in order to steer the United States away from the disastrous paths taken in Haiti and Rwanda. "It would be a tragedy if the same process were to repeat itself in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq."

But a weak point is the author never allows for the opposing viewpoint that perhaps America and the world would be better off without our interference in the first place. Just because the United States is the supreme power, that does not automatically mean it should flex its strength over less fortunate countries, appears to be a foreign concept to Ferguson.