ABSTRACT
The opening chapter of Julius W. Pratt's Expansionists of 1898 is entitled "The New Manifest Destiny". The difficulties may be seen through a consideration of the writing and influence of Pratt's six advocates. The nation's leading anti-imperialists, moreover, were also members of the nation's intelligentsia; they too had "large" audiences and some influence. John Louis O'Sullivan's influence in the period prior to the Civil War is difficult to assess. Alfred Thayer Mahan's efforts during the war involved naval operations rather than plans for empire. The principal topic, however, was the Ottoman Empire. Around 1890, Turks and Kurds began a slaughter of Armenians, a Christian people, culminating in 1894-96 with the loss of "perhaps fifty thousand lives". A "broad range" of religious groups expressed concern about the atrocities and about threats to their missionaries in the Empire. Walter LaFeber also portrays the renewed interest in empire as stemming from the work of a small group of intellectuals.
