In Charging Up San Juan Hill, John R. Van Atta recounts that fateful day in 1898. Describing the battle's background and its ramifications for Roosevelt, both personal and political, Van Atta explains how Roosevelt's wartime experience prompted him to champion American involvement in world affairs. Tracking Roosevelt's rise to the presidency, this book argues that the global expansion of American influenceindeed, the building of an empire outward from a strengthened core of shared values at homeconnected to the broader question of cultural sustainability as much as it did to the increasing of trade, political power, and military might.

Prologue : old values, new challenges -- Legacies -- Jingo doctrines -- Teddy's terrors -- Crowded hour -- New empire -- Epilogue : eclipse of old heroes.