When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to thePresent by GAIL COLLINSReview by: WALTER RUSSELL MEADForeign Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 2 (March/April 2010), p. 160Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20699873 .

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Recent Books

prevalent in the United States in the late nineteenth century as they are now. This

should inspire reflection and humility among some U.S. policymakers and public intellectuals; it probably will not.

history is one of Woods great strengths, and this work gives ample scope to his distinctive talent. His discussion of the conflict over federal finances and of the

Jeffersonians' fear that the Hamiltonians

would bring back the British system of executive control (through the expansion of the government and the creation of a

large public debt) is as clear and as thor

ough a treatment of this seminal episode as possible. This period saw some of the

strangest and most radical policies ever

adopted by the U.S. government?

especially President Thomas Jefferson s

1807 embargo, which cut off U.S. trade with Europe. Wood helps readers under

stand how such outlandish steps seemed

necessary and practical to brilliant and

experienced leaders. The book is a tour de force of scholarship and a gripping read.

When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From i960 to the Present, by gail Collins.

Little, Brown, 2009, 480 pp. $27.99. Historians looking back on the feminist revolution may someday conclude that it

was as earthshaking and important as

the French Revolution. Collins' account

of the progress made on women's rights

may be long on anecdote and short on

analysis, but it is nevertheless a gripping and eminently readable account of a

remarkable story. Younger readers will

be astonished as they read Collins' descrip tions of the world of the 1950s and 1960s,

when both women and men assumed that

systematic discrimination based on gender was natural and benign. Older readers will be reminded of how much has changed. The twenty-first century may well be the

century of the woman on a global scale, as

the changes Collins documents that remade

family life in Europe and North America continue to sweep across the world.

ManagingAmerican Hegemony:

Essays on Power in a Time of Dominance.

by kori . schake. Hoover

Institution Press, 2009, 208 pp. $25.00

(paper, $15.00). These days, it is fashionable to speak of a

"post-American world"; discussions of the

United States' decline fill the pages of many leading publications. Yet U.S. President Barack Obama dominates the world stage as few historical figures have, and the United States appears destined to play a

unique role in the international system for

many decades to come. Schake, who is

distinguished chair in international security studies at West Point, not only explains

why this role appears to be so resilient; she also offers advice for extending the United States' run as the leading world power. Even

though this collection was originally pre pared for that usually forgettable genre? advice to an incoming administration?the

Empire of Liberty: A History ofthe Early Republic^ 1J89-1815. by gordon s.

wood. Oxford University Press, 2009, 800 pp. $35.00.

No one is more qualified to write a history of this vital period in the rise of the United States than Wood, and Empire of Liberty shows him at his best. Undergraduates and bright high school students will find it accessible and inviting; lifelong scholars of the period will be challenged and en

gaged. Integrating intellectual and political

[ 6 ] FOREIGN AF FA 1RS? Volume 8? No. 2

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