Friday, January 9, 2009

Charlotte Strick: Ark of the Liberties

I've had a crush on this book since it came out in June. The photo shows the statue of liberty during its construction in Paris - the dislocation and extreme cyanotype quality of the image makes it look like a glimpse of a parallel universe. The cover is gritty matte with gold foil. It's a great image considering the subject of the book:

"This fascinating and sometimes ambiguous book is a history of United States foreign policy told from the point of view of the ideas that motivated it – or rather, not the ideas but the ideal that motivated it: the great ideal of liberty. For Ted Widmer sees the American millennial dream as having at its heart the idea that Americans are the new chosen people, tasked by God to bring liberty to the whole world." - Product Description.