A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic.

"A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic" by Michael A. Verney explores the role of US naval expeditions in the nation's process of imperialization in the 19th century. The book focuses on seven antebellum naval expeditions to illustrate the multi-dimensional nature of US imperialist policy. The author argues that these expeditions were instrumental in shaping the nation's emergence as a great power. However, some aspects of the book's argument, such as the assertion of racialist ideology, are seen as tenuous or overstated. [Extracted from the article]