Wars and Peace is a historical look at how Americans have tried to conceptualize peace during five national security crises: The Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Mayers examines the intellectual foundations of U.S. foreign policy since 1861 and analyzes the way that Americans, across the political spectrum and in times of conflict, have conceptualized the eras that would follow hostilities. Mayers looks at history in terms of a current problem: How should the United States fashion its policy in the post-Cold War world? What is striking about previous attempts to impose order on a postwar world, Mayers reveals, is that they failed to fulfill the hopes of their authors. Yet the cumulative impact of these ideas has been to shape the collective imagination in America. Mayers argues that U.S. purpose remains unchanged and like that of every nation: to survive and to prosper.