Claiming that great powers determine the character of an international system is unremarkable. The difficult task is to show how great powers have created and maintained an international system that works in their interests. This is the job Alex Roberto Hybel undertakes in Made by the USA. He seeks to show how the United States first responded to the Europedominated state system, and then upon rising to great power status, how it sought to shape the international system to its own benefit. The contemporary relevance of Hybel's effort is for assessing whether the United States can maintain control over the international system into the twenty-first century.