The Irony of American History

by Reinhold Niebuhr

It’s one of the most important books in American self-criticism. It was written after America had risen as a giant, as victor in World War II, when many believed it had won the mandate of Heaven and had ‘dreams of managing history’, when some even entertained the thought of a preventative nuclear war, as the US became embroiled in global antagonism with the Soviet Union. Reinhold Niebuhr, as a pessimistic theologian, was uneasy with American idealism and self-exaltation.