the past, that this is God-given. It proves God's on our side or our gods are on our side or whatever the claim has been made. And in this sense, the US is no different from other major powers of the past. In fact, I like to say and I deeply believe that we've learned almost everything about being an empire from Britain, which was the dominant power in the world from roughly 1800 to roughly 19, let's say 1945, but one could quibble with the decades a little bit. But in any event, yes, Britain thought itself masters of the world and in some ways it was in the 19th century. It was the first country to industrialize. It had an economy that just dominated the world and it was able to beat the heck out of just about everyone that it tried to beat the heck out of in the 19th century. Now, for the United States, we've kind of had that view throughout our long history. The self-image that the US is the city on the hill, a phrase made popular again by Ronald Reagan in an inspiring presidential (18/45)
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