A groundbreaking examination of Latin America's pivotal role in shaping U.S. imperial ambitions and tactics.

In the quest to understand the Bush administration's aggressive foreign policy, countless books have scoured Roman and British imperial history for precedents. Yet they have largely overlooked the most influential laboratory for America's extraterritorial rule: Latin America.

In Empire's Workshop, historian Greg Grandin uncovers this long-obscured history, tracing U.S. imperial operations from Thomas Jefferson's dreams of an "empire of liberty" in Cuba and Spanish Florida to Ronald Reagan's support for brutal, U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He reveals how Latin America served as the genesis for the Bush administration's policies, where key figures like John Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, and Otto Reich first embraced military power to advance free-market economics and enlisted evangelical support for their ventures.

As much of Latin America now rebels against U.S. domination, Grandin poses a vital question: If Washington has failed to bring prosperity and democracy to its own backyard "workshop," what chance does it have of doing so for the world?