In this wide-ranging book, historian Lester D. Langley offers a fresh interpretation of the history of the modern Western hemisphere since the mid-nineteenth century. He evaluates the dynamics of hemispheric history, commencing with the articulation of the "two Americas" (Theodore Roosevelt's America and the contrasting America described by Cuban revolutionary, essayist, and poet Jose Marti) and culminating with recent controversial efforts to forge a united hemisphere.

Tracing the interactions and influences among the nations of South, Central, and North America, including Canada,...