<div><div><div><b>&#8220;Grandin has always been a brilliant historian; now he uses his detective skills in a book that is absolutely crucial to understanding our present.&#8221;<br>&#8212;Naomi Klein, author of <i>No Logo</i></b></div><div><i></i>&nbsp;</div><div><div><div>The British and Roman empires are often invoked as precedents to the Bush administration&#8217;s aggressive foreign policy. But America&#8217;s imperial identity was actually shaped much closer to home. In a brilliant excavation of long-obscured history, <i>Empire&#8217;s Workshop</i> shows how Latin America has functioned as a proving ground for American strategies and tactics overseas. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States&#8217; imperial operations from Jefferson&#8217;s aspirations for an &#8220;empire of liberty&#8221; in Cuba and Spanish Florida to Reagan&#8217;s support for brutally oppressive but U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bush&#8217;s current policies back to Latin America, where many of the administration&#8217;s leading lights first embraced the deployment of military power to advance free market economics and enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures.</div><div><br>With much of Latin America now in open rebellion against U.S. domination, Grandin asks: If Washington failed to bring prosperity and democracy to Latin America&#8212;its own backyard &#8220;workshop&#8221;&#8212;what are the chances it will do so for the world?</div></div></div></div></div>