Traditionally, historians have portrayed the development and expansion of the American state as a consequence of a series of domestic factors. Epochal decisions over issues as diverse as slavery, territorial expansion, the role of central government and economic growth have, the traditional argument goes, been at the forefront of the progression of the United States and have decisively shaped the way the nation has developed. However, in his new book, Transnational Nation, Ian Tyrrell argues against this one-dimensional view and attempts to situate the narrative tale of American history firmly within an international context. As he notes in the introduction, “Some say the United States was born free but it was also born deeply connected – to the world, its peoples, its traditions–and has been wrestling with the consequences ever since” (1).

The book does, though, come with an important caveat attached. “Such a book can in no way be definitive,” the author explains. “It is an exploratory essay, and I hope others will follow in these footsteps” (ix). Consequently the argument does, in places, appear a little forced: certain historical periods appear to be shoehorned into the wider argument in order to keep up the momentum. For example, in chapter 2, the author details the way that foreign capital and international commerce impacted upon US economic development in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Though the chapter is cogently argued, it is not clear that the transnational approach offers anything substantive to existing scholarship. The broad nature of the book's content means that, somewhat inevitably, this is a pattern that is repeated on several other occasions.

Where this book becomes far more innovative and important, however, is when it begins to trace the transformation of America from a mid-range power to the global behemoth that it has become today. Tyrrell argues that the rise of American power in the twentieth century can be directly linked to the growing interaction between the US and the global system and, most importantly of all, that this whole process was actually governed and constrained by an unresolved tension between America's ever-increasing global role and its long-standing penchant for isolationism constructed around ingrained notions of exceptionalism. Furthermore, the author accurately notes that even as American power has increased, it has not been able to shake off or relinquish its global ties. In doing so, he starkly demonstrates the inherent limits on American power. Toward the end of the book he writes, “The United States still needed allies, as unilateral military force of any kind short of nuclear annihilation could not realize the modernizing, free-market world that its leaders wanted” (228). This juxtaposition of American hyper-power with the consistent limits placed on US leaders by the systemic pressures of the globalized world is in stark contrast to the triumphalist ideas put forth at the end of the Cold War. Fully aware of this, Tyrrell concludes this engaging and thought-provoking study by arguing that, in the post-9/11 era, “The world was not a blank slate upon which American cultural, economic and foreign policies could be written. History does not stop, does not end, at least not yet” (229).