Purpose and Power is a tour de force of diplomatic history, from the Revolution to the current day. After reading, I felt that I had gotten a bird's eye overview of America's foreign policy history and what factors affected the changes the country has gone through. Stoker is not afraid to address the nuances America has found itself facing, from the questions that independence bore, to the unipolar world America was in after the Cold War.

The one idea that stuck with me throughout the book was the argument that hegemony is not grand strategy. It really made me adjust how I looked at Cold War history. While this may have been at times an effect of action, it was not the driving end goal of policymakers. Maybe I had briefly considered this, but Stoker forced me to really grapple with it intellectually.

There are some instances that I wish he would have dove down a little deeper rather, especially in early republic history. Washington's actions for example, I think are complex when considering context and I wanted a little bit more "why" than the romp through the Hamilton and Jeffersonian debate.

As the book argues, America always has a grand strategy. Whether that's implemented well or not, that's another question. I think seriously readers who want to challenge their usual conception of American diplomatic history would greatly benefit from taking time to read Purpose and Power

A book with an incredibly large scope, that looks at US strategy from the early days of the American Revolution to current day. Very informative, though I wonder about some of the outside influences on US strategy and the influence of historical events. The book might have been too broad in attempting to cover too much in a single book. It's still worth picking up though.