An Improbable Quest

Abstract

The conclusion revisits the history of Luce’s American Century, surveying how this imagined community never lived up to either his expectations or those of the policymakers who tried but failed to bring the world under American leadership. As the American Century fell into dormancy after 1968, some former officials like Thomas L. Hughes tried to define it in terms Luce would not have recognized. The idea of an American Century largely vanished until the 1990s when neoconservatives revived it in an adulterated form, the Project for the New American Century. Then during Barack Obama’s presidency, Hillary Clinton called for a new American Century to contain China’s ambitions. Subsequently, Donald Trump’s aversion to exerting global leadership likely dashed all such hopes.