In this historical overview, Ruether (feminist theology, Graduate Theological Union, California) describes the US as in possession of a double identity: on one hand, a champion of the values of freedom and equality with God on its side, on the other a persecutor of non-whites at home and abroad through policies based on racial exclusivism and imperial aims. From the European roots of such beliefs through the Revolutionary and Spanish-American wars, the Cold War, and operations in Nicaragua and Iraq, the author dissects the institutions that maintain this double identity and the continual protest movements that seek to change it. This book is distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)