America: Empire or Umpire, and At What Cost?

Historian Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman spoke at Cornell March 6, 2014 as part of the Einaudi Center's ongoing Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series. Cobbs Hoffman is a professor of history and the Dwight E. Stanford Chair in U.S. Foreign Relations at San Diego State University. In her new history of American foreign relations, "American Umpire," she questions the idea that the United States is an empire, and argues instead that America has more often played the role of umpire since 1776.