The Atlantic

The End of the American Century

The country’s role as a global model and guarantor of freedom and rule of law is being brought to an end by Trump.
Source: Brian Snyder / Reuters

In 1941, a year before America entered World War II, Henry Luce, the founder and publisher of , wrote an essay called “The American Century.” It was an argument not just against isolationism but for America as a global moral beacon.  Luce, the son of American missionaries to China, wrote that America must “accept wholeheartedly our duty and our opportunity as the most powerful and vital nation in the world and in consequence exert upon

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