Ark of the liberties : America and the world / Ted Widmer.

The collapse of America's standing in world opinion over the past eight years has been catastrophic. Ted Widmer, scholar and former speechwriter for President Clinton, reminds us why America had so far to fall. In a sweeping history of centuries, he recounts America's ambition to be the world's guarantor of liberty--a success story that America, and the world, forgets at its peril. Fully addressing America's disastrous occupation of Iraq, this book colorfully narrates America's long, complex history of expanding world liberty. The founding generation imbued America with an ambition that a series of remarkable presidents, primarily Wilson to FDR to Clinton, wielded American power to advance. The book brims with insights: America's centuries-long favorable relationship with the Middle East; why Wilson's presidency deserves reappraisal; Bill Clinton's underappreciated achievements; and how America's long history of foreign policy immediately touches on the choices we face in 2008.--From publisher description.