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In 1900, where Winston Churchill ended the fourth volume of
his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, the United
States had not yet emerged onto the world scene as a great
power.
Meanwhile, the British Empire was in decline, but did not yet
know it. Any number of other powers might have won primacy
in the twentieth century and beyond, including Germany, Russia,
even possibly France. Yet the coming century was to belong
to the English-Speaking peoples who successively and successfully
fought the Kaiser’s Germany, Axis aggression, and Soviet
Communism, and are now struggling against Islamic fundamentalist
terrorism.
Andrew Roberts brilliantly reveals what made the English-speaking
people the preeminent political culture since 1900, and how
they have defended their primacy from the many assaults upon
them. What connects those countries where the majority of
the population speaks English as a first language—the
United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
the West Indies, and Ireland—is far greater than what
separates them, and the development of their history since
1900 has been a phenomenal success story.
Authoritative and engrossing, A History of the English-Speaking
Peoples Since 1900 is an enthralling account of the century
in which the political culture of one linguistic world-grouping
comprehensively triumphed over all others. Roberts’s
History proves especially invaluable, as the United States
today looks to other parts of the English-speaking world
as its best, closest, and most dependable allies.
Andrew Roberts writes: “As the first rays of sunlight
broke over the Chatham Island, 360 miles east of New Zealand
in the South Pacific, a little before 6:00am on Tuesday,
January 1, 1901, the world entered a century that for all
its warfare and perils would nonetheless mark the triumph
of the English-speaking peoples. Few could have suspected
it at the time, but the British Empire would wane to extinction
during that period, while the American Republic would wax
to such hegemony that it would become the sole global hyper-power.
Assault after assault would be made upon the English-speaking
peoples’ primacy, each of which would be beaten off
successfully, albeit sometimes at huge and tragic cost. Even
as the twenty-first century dawned, they would be doughtily
defending themselves still.”
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