Larson's central thesis in Isaac's Storm is that at the turn of the century, America was filled to the brim with a false and dangerous sense of overconfidence, even to the point where people believed they could control the weather. To be sure, there were several reasons for Americans—specifically white American men—to feel confident about their nation's future in 1900. The Western frontier, along with the American Indians who long inhabited it, had largely been conquered. In terms of foreign affairs, the Spanish-American War was extraordinarily popular, as it gave American men from the North and South the first opportunity to fight alongside one another since the Civil War. 

The war ended with a US victory in less than 100 days, and 289 Americans perished in the conflict. America had also grown into an industrial and technological force to be reckoned with on the global stage. Thanks to the efforts of Andrew Carnegie and countless workers, America had become the world's largest steel producer. Following a halt in production during the Civil War, the country had regained its position as one of the world's top producers of raw cotton. Meanwhile, three of the most transformative technological inventions of the previous century—Samuel Morse's telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, and Thomas Edison's light bulb—all came from the minds of Americans (or, in Bell's case, a Scotsman who long ago chose America as his adopted country).