Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles

Full of colorful details and engrossing stories, Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles shows that the aspirations of individual Americans to be recognized as people worthy of others'' respect was a driving force in the global extension of United States influence shortly after the nation''s founding.

Nancy Shoemaker contends that what she calls extraterritorial Americans constituted the vanguard of...