Schroeder, who died in 2020, was a celebrated historian of international politics and diplomacy. These essays on American foreign policy, particularly on U.S. interventions in the Middle East from the Gulf War through the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, were originally published in The American Conservative and are here published by the leftist Verso Press. That they fit comfortably on both sides of the political spectrum reflects their brilliance, the breadth of their historical grounding,