Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power 2010 by Bruce Cumings (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars (16)
From the author of The Origins of the Korean War, this book “faces West” to focus on the importance of the Pacific Coast in a boldly original reinterpretation of the American ascendency.
America is the first world power to inhabit an immense land mass open at both ends to the world’s two largest oceans―the Atlantic and the Pacific. This gives America a great competitive advantage often overlooked by Atlanticists, whose focus remains overwhelmingly fixed on America’s relationship with Europe. Bruce Cumings challenges the Atlanticist perspective in this innovative new history, arguing that relations with Asia influenced our history greatly.
Cumings chronicles how the movement westward, from the Middle West to the Pacific, has shaped America’s industrial, technological, military, and global rise to power. He unites domestic and international history, international relations, and political economy to demonstrate how technological change and sharp economic growth have created a truly bicoastal national economy that has led the world for more than a century. Cumings emphasizes the importance of American encounters with Mexico, the Philippines, and the nations of East Asia. The result is a wonderfully integrative history that advances a strong argument for a dual approach to American history incorporating both Atlanticist and Pacificist perspectives.
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"This is nevertheless one of the richest and most thoughtful books of American history I have read in a long time. . . . Cumings's book is both a timely and splendidly enjoyable read."--Dominic Sandbrook, Literary Review
--Dominic Sandbrook "Literary Review" (2/1/2010 12:00:00 AM)
"Dominion from Sea to Sea is both original and so well researched that I am in awe of all the work and how all that information has been integrated."--Daniel Chirot, University of Washington--Daniel Chirot
"Bruce Cumings traces American history along its inexorable drive westward, not merely to California and the limits of the continent's frontier but all the way to the Pacific Rim. He argues that such westward outreach has transformed America's character and helped to write its destiny, if not always for the good. . . . To make his case, Mr. Cumings . . . has produced a sprawling narrative, with shifting subthemes and flashes back and forth in time."--Arthur Herman, The Wall Street Journal--Arthur Herman "Wall Street Journal" (11/20/2009 12:00:00 AM)
"Bruce Cumings, in this beautifully written book . . . presents consistently stunning analysis of a mountain of dascinating data."--James I. Matray, American Historical Review--James I. Matray "American Historical Review"
"In a rich and colorful narrative Cumings sweeps the reader westward across time and space, recounting U.S. history from the perspective of the Pacific, with special attention to California on one side and East Asia on the other. From Jurassic trenches to Silicon Valley, he links the westering of people, technology, capitalism, and lifestyles to both domestic and foreign policy and concludes that whatever has happened to California (and hence to the country), America remains ascendant, even if it doesn't always know how to go about its global leadership. Agree or disagree, the story is irresistible."--Carol Gluck, Columbia University--Carol Gluck
"In this fascinating book, Bruce Cumings, whose scholarly work has focused on East Asia, shows that he can be just as adept and exciting in writing American history. Actually, it is a 'Pacificist' version of U.S. history. He shows that 'the American story' can never be fully told unless the Western parts of the United States as well as the Pacific region are incorporated. Describing in colorful detail developments in the Western states, including Texas, as well as the countries of East Asia, the author argues that these developments have been inseparable from the story of U.S. 'dominion from sea to sea, ' or its overwhelming military presence in 'the global archipelago.' The book fits into an emerging scholarly trend, to transcend narrowly focused national narratives and to deal with larger entities and in large frameworks such as Atlantic history, Europeanization, South Asian cosmopolitanism that have already enriched our understanding of modern global history. Few historians are as capable as Cumings of launching the field of Pacific history, and readers will find in this imaginatively conceived and earnestly but also humorously presented history much that will help them understand how the United States became globalized domestically and internationally, and what the future holds both for the nation and for the world."--Akira Iriye, Harvard University--Akira Iriye
"In this sprawling and vastly interesting book, Bruce Cumings reorients American history from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Stressing America's expansionist thrusts and violent, unilateralist impulses, he illuminates how adventurers and entrepreneurs, state and federal governments, corporations and universities all collaborated to transform the West and revitalize America, especially after the Great Depression of the 1930s and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Rarely has a historian so evocatively and insightfully integrated the settlement of America's frontiers with the history of migration, technology, trade, agriculture, race, the environment, and foreign relations. Dominion from Sea to Sea reshapes and reorients our thinking about our nation's history; it is a book that must be read and discussed; it inspires pride and shame."--Melvyn P. Leffler, University of Virginia--Melvyn Leffler
"This book is a history of how the West has transformed America. It looks at our country's rise in power from a Pacific view."--Theodore Scott, 1776 Magazine--Theodore Scott "1776 Magazine" (12/23/2009 12:00:00 AM)
"The story of America's rapid unrolling of the exceptionalist carpet is very well told by Mr. Cumings. . . .[He] writes marvelously. . . .A lively rattlebag of a history of the Pacific slope and how the Pacific Ocean came to be an American Lake."--Economist
-- "Economist"
Selected as one of the Atlantic's 25 Best Books of the Year 2009 -- "Atlantic Monthly"
About the Author
Bruce Cumings is chair of the History Department at the University of Chicago and author of the award-winning book The Origins of the Korean War.
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Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American PowerProduct details
Publisher : Yale University Press
Publication date : 28 September 2010
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 672 pages
ISBN-10 : 0300168004
ISBN-13 : 978-0300168006
Item weight : 898 g
Dimensions : 14.78 x 3.56 x 23.11 cm
Best Sellers Rank: 749,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)395 in Western U.S. History
1,450 in Political Economy
1,555 in Economic Conditions (Books)
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4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (16)
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thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing
Reviewed in the United States on 2 July 2025
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An amazing book in its scope and detail.
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Alexandre Dube
2.0 out of 5 stars Missing the point
Reviewed in Canada on 19 May 2013
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Bruce Cumings is able to write a vivid English and to speak directly to the reader... Maybe too much, as a matter of fact. He proclaims to do a "Pacifist" (i.e.: in opposition to the Atlanticist history) reading of the USA and the Pacific world. In reality, he only does a history of the US West, mostly California, and speak about Pacific world only to assert the importance of the US West in the world. He uses unnecessary examples and stories that add weight to the book (like the weather in June at Seattle, or a description of the first car he bought) and confuses (and bores) the reader.
If you're interested in a history of the West (and not the Pacific world, as Cumings pledged to write about) and especially of California, you'll find this book very interesting, but unnecessary long. If you were looking for an equivalent of Atlanticist history, but for the West (as I was), you'll be deeply disappointed and bored.
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M. Swanson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on 25 January 2011
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is a great book. 10 years ago I was a graduate history student and found his second volume of his Origins of the Korean War series one of the best explanations and overviews of US foreign relations in the period after World War II and start of the Cold War. The book had a big impact on my thinking along with Carrol Quigley, Franz Schurman, and Charles Beard.
When I saw Cumings had a new book about the US and its in place in the world I was excited when I ordered it and the book exceeded my expectations. This book is written to fit more of a non-academic and mainstream audience than some of his other books so hopefully will reach a wide audience. It gives a great view of how the US got to be so big and powerful by focusing on the West Coast of the US from its first settlement to today and the several booms if went through - the gold rush, World War II, cold war military industrial complex, and the Silicon Valley. It also present a new way of thinking about foreign policy by creating a dichotomy between Atlanatic leaning internationalism and westward leaning thinking.
There is much more to the book than just this. This is a great book worth your time to read.
13 people found this helpful
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hudunit333
3.0 out of 5 stars First the good (actually excellent)
Reviewed in the United States on 28 July 2014
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I want to give this book 5 stars and 1 star for different reasons. First the good (actually excellent): I really enjoyed learning about the history and development of California and the other western states and the hypothesis that Prof. Cumings develops throughout the book about a western facing future. It's jam packed with very intersting facts and personalities.
But from the beginning it seemed to me to be heavily, maybe overly, belabored with the issue of racism. OK, we all know about the treatment of Chinese and Japanese on the west coast and racism everywhere in America until the last several decades so that is absolutely part of the story . But then I got to the 1970's and 1980's (the part that I lived through as an adult and am familiar with) and it goes on to state that Nixon and Reagan were backed by money from the same bigoted old money and appealed to those holding the same old throwback beliefs. Now I don't know if any of the financial supporters are/were bigots or not, but I do know that that's not how they won elections.
I love to read history but I try to stay away from books where the author lets his politics get in the way of telling an accurate story. That's not history, It's propaganda. I will hold my nose and finish the book with hope, but I will now have to wonder if and how much of the story that I'm not familiar with was similarly tainted. And how is this interpreted by someone who is in their twenties and who doesn't have first hand knowledge. Also Prof Cumings states that Reagan and others weren't honest about there limited government stance because they supported a strong military and increased military spending and totally ignores the massive growth in government social spending since the 1960's. This is not a balanced view.
I don't like to make political comments on a history book but if the author is going to color history with his politics it's fair game. It's a real shame as there must have been a lot of work put into an otherwise excellent book. Just beware.
4 people found this helpful
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Biz Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling look at the connections of civilization
Reviewed in the United States on 27 June 2012
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I read this book first when it was released in 2010 and have come back to it time and time again since. I am re-reading it again, as I prepare to take my family on a 10-day trip to California.
The ability of Cumings to make connections across continents and describe how the American West facilitates human integration is remarkable.
I am awed by this book and would recommend anyone interested in global affairs to put it on their shelf and refer to it often.
4 people found this helpful
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JLA
5.0 out of 5 stars The book safely arrived as described.
Reviewed in the United States on 1 May 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Thanks.
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Heidi
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick service
Reviewed in the United States on 14 March 2017
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Product as described
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Jim Phelan
4.0 out of 5 stars USA Hegemony
Reviewed in the United States on 20 April 2011
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
This is a big-picture book. How did the USA make its way to economic, military and cultural global hegemony?
Bruce Comings describes the westward expansion of the United States and how it didn't stop at the Golden Gate, but continued on out into the Pacific Rim. He stresses the active involvement of the Federal government in the growth of California and other western states. The future of USA prosperity and global influence can be glimpsed by looking westward towards the Pacific Rim and eastward not towards Europe.
Based on a decade of historical research, here are 500 pages filled with interesting facts and solid interpretations of US history; this book is well worth reading!
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Nathan Albright
4,488 reviews160 followers
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September 9, 2023
Dominion From Sea To Sea: Pacific Ascendancy And American Power, by Bruce Cumings
This book aims to do for the Pacific Ocean and especially for the Chinese-American relationship what Atlantic historians typically do for the Atlantic Ocean and the Anglo-American friendship. There are a lot of things that keep this book from being as enjoyable or worthwhile as it could be, or as seminal as the author wants it to be. For one, the author's pro-Communist China agenda, and general bias towards radical leftists, makes this book a terribly inaccurate read and terribly biased against Republicans, especially conservative ones. For another, this book suffers terribly from insecurity about the status of the West Coast when compared to the elite circles on the East Coast. The author takes a lot of snipes at cities like Tampa, for example, which are quite gratuitous and unnecessary since the author doesn't have anything to say about the South except for Texas, which the author views as part of the west, as the author does with Chicago even though it is geographically part of the Midwest. This book, furthermore, would have been a lot better if the author had more to say about the Pacific Ocean as a means of transportation and movement of peoples. One of the things that makes the history of Atlantic historians so compelling is the way that the movement of goods and people and ideas around the ocean helps to join together a complex world made up of the native inhabitants of North and South America, Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, and Africa. The Pacific is a sprawling region, but the author seems more interested in criticizing American attitudes towards land and other people, and not so much about exploring the Pacific Ocean as a geographic region itself.
This book is a bit more than 500 pages of material, divided into five parts and 17 chapters. The author begins with a preface and acknowledgements. This is followed by the first part of the book that discusses the frontier of the mind, with an unoriginal discussion of the machine in the garden (1) as well as the finding of California (2). This is followed by a discussion of manifest destiny which includes the five easy pieces of America's continental expansion (3), a talk about gold, the continental railroad, and Texas (4), as well as America's increasingly muscular foreign policy after the Civil War (5). This is followed by a look at the peopling of the West, with a talk about the Pacific Northwest (6), Hawaii and Alaska (7), as well as the experience of Asians in the Pacific states (8). The author then spends three chapters talking about California's protean nature, including chapters on crops (9), water and power (10), and Southern California in particular (11). The fifth and final part of the book looks at the author's view of a supposed tipping point in the fate of the West, with chapters on the development of the West (12), the rise of Western Republicanism (13), the non-California west in the postwar era (14), America's Pacific empire--ignoring Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as imperial territories (15), Silicon Valley (16), and a conclusion on the American century (17). The book then ends with an appendix where the author explains his Marxist perspective, notes, bibliography, and index.
Ultimately, this book is a highly tiresome read. Over and over again the author demonstrates his bias by sniping at Republicans, showing contempt towards those who take the Bible seriously, and engages in blatant political favoritism, even thinking that anti-Communism was a mistake and that the United States should see China's contemporary rulers as kindred spirits in terms of their approach to politics and the environment. Given the problems that exist between the United States and China at the moment, it appears unlikely that the author's efforts will be successful in terms of his political agenda. Even the author's desire to celebrate the West as a potential place for radical leftist politics fails because the author has nothing to say about the reality of those politics when they have been practiced in the contemporary West. He correctly notes the way that Oregonians despise Californians (one of their more noble qualities, it must be admitted), but has nothing to say about the disastrous rule of Democrats over the West and the way that it has led to an explosive problem in homelessness and the flight of many people to other regions to escape the ills of Democratic rule. Ultimately, this book falls short in its intents to provide a Pacific history to rival that of Atlantic historians, but it does manage to provide a long-winded screed about the author's own political biases and pro-CCP propaganda efforts.
challenge-2023
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Greg Kelly
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December 29, 2023
Interesting history of manifest destiny in the U.S. and how many of the historical undercurrents from that time are reflected in our current foreign policy. I learned a lot from this book but also felt that it lacked focus. Bruce Cummings also feels like the kind of professor who you think is really cool at first but also wants to constantly remind you of how smart he is. Could have been a bit shorter.
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Boyd Cothran
81 reviews3 followers
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June 6, 2021
A re-narration of American history with a focus on explaining the rise of an American empire in the Pacific. It's fine, but the author's framing is relentless and at times silly. The book also suffers from a lack of engagement with America's involvement in Latin America. The author insists that his book is focused on the North Pacific. This seems insufficient for a book about Pacific Ascendancy and American Power. That said, it is enjoyably written and contains many fine stories.
read-2021
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Tommy
338 reviews40 followers
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May 29, 2020
The Asiatic mode of production? California was just an early asian tiger economy? Interesting anti-Atlanticist reading of American development. Cites numerous movies from Western to Eastern directors.
america history
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Iahc
5 reviews1 follower
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August 21, 2010
This is a dense history of the American West, although the author focuses mostly on California and Texas, with less space devoted to Oregon and Washington. I originally thought this book was going to be about the rise of Pacific Rim nations vis-a-vis America based on the title, so the emphasis on America was a surprise. That being said, the book is a fascinating portrait of how these four Western states and their key industries developed. I did not know of the importance that the defense industry and government spending on defense contracts played in the development of Silicon Valley and its companies until I read this book. That is but one of the fascinating revelations. The writing can be hard to follow at times; there are frequent references to movies, especially "Chinatown," which is an apparent favorite of the author. If you like the movie, then perhaps its oft-repeated references will delight you. If you don't, the dread at encountering yet another "Chinatown" movie reference can be palpable. The author does not write about all of the Western states equally, as I mentioned, and even in his portrait of California, there were more pages devoted to Los Angeles, which seems to hold a special place in the author's heart, than other parts of the state. The book thus seems to be a deeply personal endeavor for Bruce Cumings and at times his choices can seem quirky as opposed to essential. I did not share his enthusiasm for all of his topics, but I did find the book revelatory on many fronts. Cumings ultimately argues that America's "Atlantic" perspective--that is, its tendency culturally and politically to look toward the U.K. and Europe from the vantage point of the East Coast--is passé, hence his emphasis on "Pacific Ascendancy." In this sense, Cumings is persuasive. I do think America's West Coast and Pacific perspective will be increasingly important in the 21st century.
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Sarah Milne
119 reviews13 followers
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May 8, 2010
On page 419 Cumings writes: “The archipelago of empire has its domestic expression not just in Southern California, but throughout the west.” That's believable, and he makes a good case for it, but he so strongly favors California as the all-consuming expression of that empire that I started to feel the book should have been called "Californian Ascendancy and American Power." The second to last chapter, dealing with Californian based technologies, was like wading through one of Dantes' levels of hell. If I were not so obsessive I would have skipped it and moved on to the much more informative and purposive final chapter. Still, I think this is an especially pertinent and timely book, and I strongly agree with the proposition that it is time to steer away from the Atlanticist (sp?) view and give due consideration to Pacific contributions and developments. That thesis is the only reason it gets three stars, because that dang tech chapter about killed me.
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RYU Cheol
8 reviews2 followers
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December 10, 2013
Reading the finishing part of this book, I realized that this book is on China or East Asia rather than California. He seems to be pretty sure that there would not be a war between China and US. Because China had been very cautious on the conflicts, as it had been in Korea and Vietnam. He came out with a conclusion that Chinese think they could not defeat the others with military force but the power of the culture. He complains Americans do not care what are happening in Pacific area, which is his toy, but just care for the Atlantic parties which had lost prime times. He is saying to Americans there will not be an ultimate war between G2 and urges them to relieve the tension in East Asia. But I don't know Koreans would be happy or not with the suggestion. Still Koreas are in the war and the south likes to rely on the big brother who protected him.
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!Tæmbuŝu
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Want to readMay 15, 2010
KOBOBOOKS
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George
133 reviews
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October 24, 2010
Great... Exceptionally readable. Best primer for why the Navy is where it is in the Pacific.
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Vaibhav Verma
12 reviews2 followers
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April 26, 2017
Long, abundant with knowledge, and excellent prose. The book is about the rise of America as a Pacific power. The traditional approach in narrating the rise of American has an Atlanticist emphasis, focusing on the relation of America with its European counterparts. From my knowledge, Cumings does the most extensive analysis of America's rise on the other side of the continent. And he does an absolutely fantastic job. I learned a ton about the rise of Western cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, the relationship between America and its Pacific partners (i.e. Japan, China), how World War II (and the events after WWII) initiated a "militarily Keynesian" model that the US government has followed profusely, and much more. It's a very satisfying book for anyone interested in history. Highly recommend!
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