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The Lion and the Eagle: The Interaction of the British and American Empires 1783-1972
An invigorating history of the arguments and cooperation between America and Britain as they divided up the world and an illuminating exploration of their underlying alliance
Throughout modern history, British and American rivalry has gone hand in hand with common interests. In this book Kathleen Burk brilliantly examines the different kinds of power the two empires have projected, and the means they have used to do it. What the two empires have shared is a mixture of pragmatism, ruthless commercial drive, a self-righteous foreign policy and plenty of naked aggression. These have been aimed against each other more than once; yet their underlying alliance against common enemies has been historically unique and a defining force throughout the twentieth century.
This is a global and epic history of the rise and fall of empires. It ranges from America's futile attempts to conquer Canada to her success in opening up Japan but rapid loss of leadership to Britain; from Britain's success in forcing open China to her loss of the Middle East to the US; and from the American conquest of the Philippines to her destruction of the British Empire. The Pax Americana replaced the Pax Britannica, but now the American world order is fading, threatening Britain's belief in her own world role.
In our uncertain times, this is the history we need: authoritative, measured and compelling.
Throughout modern history, British and American rivalry has gone hand in hand with common interests. In this book Kathleen Burk brilliantly examines the different kinds of power the two empires have projected, and the means they have used to do it. What the two empires have shared is a mixture of pragmatism, ruthless commercial drive, a self-righteous foreign policy and plenty of naked aggression. These have been aimed against each other more than once; yet their underlying alliance against common enemies has been historically unique and a defining force throughout the twentieth century.
This is a global and epic history of the rise and fall of empires. It ranges from America's futile attempts to conquer Canada to her success in opening up Japan but rapid loss of leadership to Britain; from Britain's success in forcing open China to her loss of the Middle East to the US; and from the American conquest of the Philippines to her destruction of the British Empire. The Pax Americana replaced the Pax Britannica, but now the American world order is fading, threatening Britain's belief in her own world role.
In our uncertain times, this is the history we need: authoritative, measured and compelling.
565 pages, Hardcover
First published August 14, 2018
7 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
Kathleen Burk
18 books6 followersKathleen Mildred Burk is Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 20, 2019
I’m really divided on this book. It’s got good information, about a subject that is rarely told in modern history. However the order she has done it in is confusing and jarring. One page your reading about the 18th century, the next your reading about another. It’s very confusing and I this could of been thought out a lot better than it has been, I couldn’t finish it because I was so confused every time I read it.
June 15, 2020
I was quite excited about the topic of this book when it was first published. However, after actually reading it, I was very disappointed, for several reasons.
First, the author seems to have wanted to cover a very long time period (1700s to the 1960s) but either didn’t do her research very well, or could not make her source material work for her. For instance, while I found the first chapter on Anglo-American relations following the American War of Independence very interesting, especially in relation to how they tried to settle the border between the US and Canada unfortunately the rest of the chapters really do not offer any meaningful or deep insight or analysis about why the US and Britain acted the way they did and I am no smarter about the complicated factors that influenced the relationship between the two powers than before reading the book.
My other big problem with the book (especially the chapters about China and Japan) is that the author spends a lot of time going into great detail about who did what when (and quoting a lot from correspondence and journals) without actually telling you why the information is important. However, in other places, such as the last chapter that covers the lead-up to WWI to the Vietnam War, she assumes that the reader knows a lot about these events and gives very little context and background.
Overall, while there were some interesting tid-bits in the book, it was a long and heavy read that was too descriptive and not analytical enough that did not provide any great insights into the relationship between the US and Britain. This is a real shame because this is a topic that deserves more exploration.
First, the author seems to have wanted to cover a very long time period (1700s to the 1960s) but either didn’t do her research very well, or could not make her source material work for her. For instance, while I found the first chapter on Anglo-American relations following the American War of Independence very interesting, especially in relation to how they tried to settle the border between the US and Canada unfortunately the rest of the chapters really do not offer any meaningful or deep insight or analysis about why the US and Britain acted the way they did and I am no smarter about the complicated factors that influenced the relationship between the two powers than before reading the book.
My other big problem with the book (especially the chapters about China and Japan) is that the author spends a lot of time going into great detail about who did what when (and quoting a lot from correspondence and journals) without actually telling you why the information is important. However, in other places, such as the last chapter that covers the lead-up to WWI to the Vietnam War, she assumes that the reader knows a lot about these events and gives very little context and background.
Overall, while there were some interesting tid-bits in the book, it was a long and heavy read that was too descriptive and not analytical enough that did not provide any great insights into the relationship between the US and Britain. This is a real shame because this is a topic that deserves more exploration.
June 10, 2020
Burk has written a tome of a book on an interesting subject: the relationship of the British and American Empires. Right from the outset after the end of the American Revolution where the 2 nations had decades of negotiating the US and Canadian border through the `19th century where the countries had sibling like rivalry in the Far East to the 20th Century where the US began exceed and eventually dominate the British the
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews