Reading the financial press gives many people cause to believe the world is passing the U.S. by. There’s a widespread perception that the U.S. doesn’t make anything the world wants, that American companies have lost their edge in competing overseas, and that the domestic market has been left for dead. But Daniel Gross argues that global growth is not a zero-sum game; that instead of passing us by, the rapidly growing global economy is taking America with it.

Through his extensive reporting travels, Gross has seen first-hand: how U.S. exports (even unlikely ones) continue to power economic growth; why companies and investors are flocking to the U.S. in unprecedented numbers; how the U.S. is successfully importing business models and technologies from the developing world; and how U.S. companies continue to demonstrate an ability to create global economic ecosystems that invite innovation. In fact, the untold story of recent years has been the ability of U.S. companies large and small, established and upstarts, to engage with the world in new and important ways.

The pervasive sense of American economic decline has been one of the biggest and most damaging legacies of the financial crisis and deep recession. Rampant growth in China and emerging markets, coupled with seemingly intractable problems at home – huge deficits, political paralysis, high unemployment – have created a sense that America can no longer set the pace for the global economy. Gross lays out the rational case for optimism, noting the ways in which the U.S. has maintained economic leadership in recent years – and how it continues to do so. His argument is based on extensive reporting inside and outside the U.S., a deep knowledge of history, and an understanding of what makes the U.S. economy unique in an increasingly homogenized world.