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The course is about how 'America,' specifically the government of the United States, has affected the course of modern world history. The usual way of thinking about 'America and the world,' at least in the U.S., treats America as the subject and the rest of the world as its object. For better or worse. This course reverses the perspective. Our perspective starts with some of the big world problems over the last 130 years. Most of these arose outside of America and remained centered outside of America. For the people at the center of those foreign problems, a basic question often was: What does the United States have to do with this? If they wanted the Americans to get involved, what did they want from the Americans? The course is not organized around regions. It is organized around a historical list of world problems that powerfully influenced the course of modern history. Given prevailing beliefs and economic conditions, the course zooms in on how the various governments saw their choices. Then come the questions of why the Americans might wish to engage with these problems, often in strange situations far from their knowledge or experience. And there are the questions of how the Americans thought they could make a difference, amid the contending strategies of those who lived in these foreign places. Chastened by recent failures, citizens everywhere are reconsidering whether or how the United States should engage in problems outside of its borders. Some feel that the benighted or blundering Americans just make things worse. Many Americans wonder how much to care about foreign problems. So, except where welcomed as tourists or business partners, why shouldn't they just stay home? It is a good time to reflect on how, historically, the Americans have impacted some of the world's great problems ¿ for worse or better.