This isn't a history book - I've been familiar with prof. Snyder's other work and was expecting one, I guess.

It is an ethical treaty. A lament on the now unstoppable fall of the US imperial age. A look into how other empires fell and how countries can be - are - rebuilt afterwards, how actions and decisions shape the land and the people.

It is a book I needed to read, but which made me unbelievably sad every time I got to it.