What was the public's perception of the US in the 19th - early 20th century like?

Now obviously the public perception of the USA changes depending on the location and time period, but on a general note, was it positive, negative, neutral?<br><br>It seems that the US was kind of isolated between the Gilded Age and WW1, and the US basically only had the Caribbean as its main overseas area of influence, but i don't know how strong that feeling of isolation was.<br><br>How did the US basically go from isolation in the late 1800s to the leader of the free world, leader of the Western bloc and the leader of global culture?