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Old World, New World: Great Britain and America from the Beginning
In Old World, New World , recently published to wide acclaim in hardcover, Kathleen Burk sets out to tell the whole story of America and Great Britain for the first time. Burk is a fourth-generation Californian and a distinguished professor of history in London, and in this book she draws on her unrivaled knowledge of both countries to explore the totality of the relationship—the politics, economics, culture, and society—beginning with the first British settlement in the United States, at Jamestown, and continuing through our current alliance in Iraq and Afghanistan. The result is a lively and unprecedented book that is being hailed by critics and historians on both sides of the Atlantic as a landmark work. At once sweeping in scope and meticulous in detail, Old World, New World is a vivid, absorbing, and surprising story of one of the longest and most fascinating international relationships in modern history.
816 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2008
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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 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 27, 2025
Great Britain And The United States Intertwined
At the outset of her study of the historical relationship between Great Britain and the United States, Kathleen Burk quotes the American novelist and expatriate to Britain Henry James: "I have not the least hesitation in saying that I aspire to write in such a way that it wd. be impossible to an outsider to say whether I am, at a given moment, an American writing about England or an Englishman writing about America ... & so far from being ashamed of such an ambiguity I should be exceedingly proud of it, for it would be highly civilized."
As did Henry James, Professor Burk has strong ties to both the United States and England. She is a fourth generation Californian with degrees from UCLA. Following her studies in the United States, Burk took a degree from Oxford. On a personal level, Burk tells the reader, she is married to an Englishman. Burk currently teaches at Oxford, but she has also taught extensively in her native land. Her book, "Old World, New World" shows that Professor Burk has succeeded in the difficult task of seeing the relationship between the United States and Great Britain with sympathy and understanding from both sides. Her ability to become part of each culture is the chief strength of this excellent history.
In her book, Burk tries to show that there is a "special relationship" between the United States and Britain which is largely different from the relationship between any other two nations. She traces the course of this relationship over four centuries, beginning with the first attempts at British colonization of America in the early 17th Century to the present day. With the lengthy time frame of her study, Burk shows how the relationship has evolved. Thus, the story begins with Britain beginning her rise to Empire and then losing what were the 13 colonies in the Revolutionary War. Britain continued her rise to world dominance in the Nineteenth Century over a rambunctious United States. With the 20th Century, the costs of two World Wars, the end of Britain's empire, and the conclusion of the Cold War,the positions of the United States and Britain were reversed. The United States became the world's dominant economic and military power, while a restive Britain reluctantly settled into the role of regional power. Burk shows how the United States and Britain shared many of the same traits during their times of world dominance. These traits include a genuine desire to do good and to act democratically. Both countries also shared a certain arrogance and blindness in concluding that they possessed some special insight into what was good and in too readily conflating "the good" with their own political and economic ambitions.
Burk also describes the "love-hate" character of the relationship between Great Britain and the United States. At the outset of the relationship, the colonists were proud to consider themselves British subjects. With the Revolution and American independence, the two countries were enemies for many years. Even though this was the case, many people on both sides of the Atlantic realized that the two peoples had much in common. There was a degree of forbearance in the relationship, particularly by Britain, during the Nineteenth Century. Burk finds a watershed in the relationship occured in 1871, when difficulties arising from the American Civil War between the countries and various longstanding boundary issues were settled. During the late 19th and early 20th Century, Britain showed deference to the growing United States on a number of issues which, in the absence of restraint, could have led to war. In the Twentieth Century, the United States and Britain combined as allies and friends in two world wars.
Professor Burk's study consists of eight chapters, five of which discuss the ongoing political relationships between Britain and the United States. In separate chapters, she explores the colonial period and the Revolutionary War. In a lengthy third chapter, she covers the relationship between Britain and the United States from 1783 -- 1872, a period which includes the War of 1812, American expansion, and the Civil War. She discusses the change of relationship and of the status of the two countries in a chapter covering 1872 to 1945. And she concludes with a discussion of the twisting course of the alliance since 1945.
In three chapters that function as lengthy interludes to the political history, Burk offers insight into how people on both sides of the Atlantic viewed the relationship through examining the many travel books that were written during the 19th Century. In an excellent chapter, "Some aspects of Everyday Life in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century" Burk shows how literary and social ideas crossed the Atlantic in both directions bringing the United States and Britain closer together. Finally, in a chapter titled "Anglo- American Marital Relations: 1870-1945 she shows how the relationship between the two countries was influenced by intermarriages. She tells the story of Jenny Churchill, the American mother of the Prime Minister, and of the many marriages between Americans and British subjects that resulted from WW II.
Burk's book offers a comprehensive overview of British American relationships, told in the voice of an insider to both cultures. I learned a great deal from the breadth and depth of her study.
Robin Friedman
At the outset of her study of the historical relationship between Great Britain and the United States, Kathleen Burk quotes the American novelist and expatriate to Britain Henry James: "I have not the least hesitation in saying that I aspire to write in such a way that it wd. be impossible to an outsider to say whether I am, at a given moment, an American writing about England or an Englishman writing about America ... & so far from being ashamed of such an ambiguity I should be exceedingly proud of it, for it would be highly civilized."
As did Henry James, Professor Burk has strong ties to both the United States and England. She is a fourth generation Californian with degrees from UCLA. Following her studies in the United States, Burk took a degree from Oxford. On a personal level, Burk tells the reader, she is married to an Englishman. Burk currently teaches at Oxford, but she has also taught extensively in her native land. Her book, "Old World, New World" shows that Professor Burk has succeeded in the difficult task of seeing the relationship between the United States and Great Britain with sympathy and understanding from both sides. Her ability to become part of each culture is the chief strength of this excellent history.
In her book, Burk tries to show that there is a "special relationship" between the United States and Britain which is largely different from the relationship between any other two nations. She traces the course of this relationship over four centuries, beginning with the first attempts at British colonization of America in the early 17th Century to the present day. With the lengthy time frame of her study, Burk shows how the relationship has evolved. Thus, the story begins with Britain beginning her rise to Empire and then losing what were the 13 colonies in the Revolutionary War. Britain continued her rise to world dominance in the Nineteenth Century over a rambunctious United States. With the 20th Century, the costs of two World Wars, the end of Britain's empire, and the conclusion of the Cold War,the positions of the United States and Britain were reversed. The United States became the world's dominant economic and military power, while a restive Britain reluctantly settled into the role of regional power. Burk shows how the United States and Britain shared many of the same traits during their times of world dominance. These traits include a genuine desire to do good and to act democratically. Both countries also shared a certain arrogance and blindness in concluding that they possessed some special insight into what was good and in too readily conflating "the good" with their own political and economic ambitions.
Burk also describes the "love-hate" character of the relationship between Great Britain and the United States. At the outset of the relationship, the colonists were proud to consider themselves British subjects. With the Revolution and American independence, the two countries were enemies for many years. Even though this was the case, many people on both sides of the Atlantic realized that the two peoples had much in common. There was a degree of forbearance in the relationship, particularly by Britain, during the Nineteenth Century. Burk finds a watershed in the relationship occured in 1871, when difficulties arising from the American Civil War between the countries and various longstanding boundary issues were settled. During the late 19th and early 20th Century, Britain showed deference to the growing United States on a number of issues which, in the absence of restraint, could have led to war. In the Twentieth Century, the United States and Britain combined as allies and friends in two world wars.
Professor Burk's study consists of eight chapters, five of which discuss the ongoing political relationships between Britain and the United States. In separate chapters, she explores the colonial period and the Revolutionary War. In a lengthy third chapter, she covers the relationship between Britain and the United States from 1783 -- 1872, a period which includes the War of 1812, American expansion, and the Civil War. She discusses the change of relationship and of the status of the two countries in a chapter covering 1872 to 1945. And she concludes with a discussion of the twisting course of the alliance since 1945.
In three chapters that function as lengthy interludes to the political history, Burk offers insight into how people on both sides of the Atlantic viewed the relationship through examining the many travel books that were written during the 19th Century. In an excellent chapter, "Some aspects of Everyday Life in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century" Burk shows how literary and social ideas crossed the Atlantic in both directions bringing the United States and Britain closer together. Finally, in a chapter titled "Anglo- American Marital Relations: 1870-1945 she shows how the relationship between the two countries was influenced by intermarriages. She tells the story of Jenny Churchill, the American mother of the Prime Minister, and of the many marriages between Americans and British subjects that resulted from WW II.
Burk's book offers a comprehensive overview of British American relationships, told in the voice of an insider to both cultures. I learned a great deal from the breadth and depth of her study.
Robin Friedman
November 16, 2009
Burk has written a big history from two perspectives, Britain and the United States, beginning with the settlement in Jamestown and ending with the Iraq war. Except for the past 100 years or so, the two have usually been at odds, the United States finding itself in an inferior position, economically and militarily, not to mention a more subjective cultural inferiority. But involvement in 20th century wars drained Britain in all kinds of ways, and now it has been reduced to a 2nd rate power while the United States has become the colossus that bestrides the world. Whether America can maintain this position remains to be seen; what is certain, though, that Britain will never regain its "Great" status.
May 14, 2014
Fantastic look at US-UK relations from Independence to the modern day. Really good at charting the slide of world power from the Old World to the New World, and all the enmity, the grudging friendship, and eventual alliance that went along with it. Superb!
December 16, 2010
Interesting but I did find it a bit of a plod through especially the 18th century section.
March 3, 2017
An interesting read on Anglo-American relations. Quite long at over 600 pages and would have benefited from tighter editing. A very readable history primarily because the author does not take sides and doesn't appear to have an agenda.I found the later chapters from the 20th century on the most compelling.
The book almost exclusively looks at the interactions of the two countries which means that there's scant mention of other historical events that must have shaped the relationship such as the French Revolution. The expansion of US territory through the Louisiana purchase, Texas, Alaska or Hawaii doesn't get much of a mention. The assassination of a British PM is reported but one line explaining why he was shot would have helped. The abolition of slavery in the UK wasn't covered as a distinct paragraph so I found it a confusing reoccurring topic in the book. Also, while I'm on a roll, it wasn't clearly explained why the Northern part of the continent became Canada and resisted the revolutionary impulses of their Southern fellows. It wasn't clear why the imposition of new taxes didn't incense Canadians too or were they administered differently? Maybe I missed it!
It suffered from a lack of coherent chronology. There were chapters that covered same time period but from different perspectives so that the reader was jumping forward and back in time. Some of the time periods covered were huge. I would have preferred tighter time periods with the social, marital, cultural and political issues all covered within the one chapter.
The book made me appreciate the non-homogeneous nature of American culture through the different impulses and different groups who settled the continent. I found it a timely read given the polarised state of current US politics and makes me even more sceptical of the US media.
The book almost exclusively looks at the interactions of the two countries which means that there's scant mention of other historical events that must have shaped the relationship such as the French Revolution. The expansion of US territory through the Louisiana purchase, Texas, Alaska or Hawaii doesn't get much of a mention. The assassination of a British PM is reported but one line explaining why he was shot would have helped. The abolition of slavery in the UK wasn't covered as a distinct paragraph so I found it a confusing reoccurring topic in the book. Also, while I'm on a roll, it wasn't clearly explained why the Northern part of the continent became Canada and resisted the revolutionary impulses of their Southern fellows. It wasn't clear why the imposition of new taxes didn't incense Canadians too or were they administered differently? Maybe I missed it!
It suffered from a lack of coherent chronology. There were chapters that covered same time period but from different perspectives so that the reader was jumping forward and back in time. Some of the time periods covered were huge. I would have preferred tighter time periods with the social, marital, cultural and political issues all covered within the one chapter.
The book made me appreciate the non-homogeneous nature of American culture through the different impulses and different groups who settled the continent. I found it a timely read given the polarised state of current US politics and makes me even more sceptical of the US media.
May 20, 2014
An interesting perspective on history and diplomacy. Necessarily light on detail and depth in some areas in an effort to be single-volume. I got a lot out of it. I really enjoyed seeing U.S. actions and policies from a British perspective.
October 10, 2014
A fairly comprehensive study of the unique Anglo-American relationship: its origins, history, perceptions, etc. She traces the course of these relations over four centuries, beginning with the colonial period to the Bush era. This sweep allows Burk to show how the relationship evolved over time.
She does a good job explaining what truly makes the relationship “special,” and how it continued to endure despite tense relations concerning other aspects. She describes how America became both independent from and dependent on Britain.
Burk’s treatment of the war of independence is particularly interesting. In the popular imagination of Americans, the war is portrayed, as Burk puts it, as “a tale of unity and valour, of right versus wrong, of the simple God-fearing American fighting for his home and his liberty against the arrogant, freedom-destroying Briton,” when, in fact, it was a civil war, both between the British and the colonists (who considered themselves British), and between the colonists themselves. It was also a world war with Britain on one side and the France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic on the other. Nor was the revolution all that popular among colonists: active support for the revolution virtually ceased by the time of the Battle of Yorktown.
There are a few typos: “Dolly Madison” or “Alexandra, Egypt.” Calvin Coolidge is called a “backwoodsman” and World War Two merits only about two pages. And the author does not seem to know the difference between a senator and a congressman. She also calls Lieutenant General Peter de la Billière a former “director” of the SAS (rather than a commander). She then writes that the SAS was “hunting out” Scud missiles in Iraq during the Gulf War; surely she means “hunting down?” When writing about the war in Afghanistan Burk claims that on October 19, 2001 “US Rangers and Special Forces, alongside local opponents of the Taliban” attacked Mullah Omar’s home in Kandahar, when in fact, these were two different operations: the Rangers seized an airfield south of the city and Delta Force raided Omar’s home. In neither operation were any “local opponents” of the Taliban involved.
Burk’s writing can also get rather strange and hard to understand sometimes: “In spite of Hakluyt’s ‘Discourse’ and Raleigh’s energetic lobbying for funds, the Queen’s support was restricted largely to that of her approval, but without which he could not have gone.” (page 17) Huh? So the queen would also support something she didn’t approve of? What?
Burk also includes painful analogies: “As Gary Cooper knew in the film High Noon, even the bravest and the best sometimes need help.”(page 561).
Burk also assumes that nobody knows who James Madison is: “The period from 1647 to 1660 saw the bulk of this Cavalier migration, during which names famous in American history make their first appearance, with the first Madison (James Madison was the fourth President) receiving a grant of land in 1653 and the first Washington in 1657.”
The book’s story flows rather well, although Chapter 7 (“Anglo-American Marital Relations 1870-1945”) was mind-numbingly boring and arguably irrelevant. Still, an ambitious work that succeeds or the most part.
She does a good job explaining what truly makes the relationship “special,” and how it continued to endure despite tense relations concerning other aspects. She describes how America became both independent from and dependent on Britain.
Burk’s treatment of the war of independence is particularly interesting. In the popular imagination of Americans, the war is portrayed, as Burk puts it, as “a tale of unity and valour, of right versus wrong, of the simple God-fearing American fighting for his home and his liberty against the arrogant, freedom-destroying Briton,” when, in fact, it was a civil war, both between the British and the colonists (who considered themselves British), and between the colonists themselves. It was also a world war with Britain on one side and the France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic on the other. Nor was the revolution all that popular among colonists: active support for the revolution virtually ceased by the time of the Battle of Yorktown.
There are a few typos: “Dolly Madison” or “Alexandra, Egypt.” Calvin Coolidge is called a “backwoodsman” and World War Two merits only about two pages. And the author does not seem to know the difference between a senator and a congressman. She also calls Lieutenant General Peter de la Billière a former “director” of the SAS (rather than a commander). She then writes that the SAS was “hunting out” Scud missiles in Iraq during the Gulf War; surely she means “hunting down?” When writing about the war in Afghanistan Burk claims that on October 19, 2001 “US Rangers and Special Forces, alongside local opponents of the Taliban” attacked Mullah Omar’s home in Kandahar, when in fact, these were two different operations: the Rangers seized an airfield south of the city and Delta Force raided Omar’s home. In neither operation were any “local opponents” of the Taliban involved.
Burk’s writing can also get rather strange and hard to understand sometimes: “In spite of Hakluyt’s ‘Discourse’ and Raleigh’s energetic lobbying for funds, the Queen’s support was restricted largely to that of her approval, but without which he could not have gone.” (page 17) Huh? So the queen would also support something she didn’t approve of? What?
Burk also includes painful analogies: “As Gary Cooper knew in the film High Noon, even the bravest and the best sometimes need help.”(page 561).
Burk also assumes that nobody knows who James Madison is: “The period from 1647 to 1660 saw the bulk of this Cavalier migration, during which names famous in American history make their first appearance, with the first Madison (James Madison was the fourth President) receiving a grant of land in 1653 and the first Washington in 1657.”
The book’s story flows rather well, although Chapter 7 (“Anglo-American Marital Relations 1870-1945”) was mind-numbingly boring and arguably irrelevant. Still, an ambitious work that succeeds or the most part.
December 23, 2014
As someone who researches history, I often go straight to the bibliography and footnotes, and I find that this historian has done good diligence in her research. She has considerable primary (archival and first-hand) sources as well as a formidible number of other works. Her footnotes are unusually readable and enlightening.
The work itself is worthwhile for anyone interested in history, since it goes through an old story -- the histories of America and Britain from colonial days -- in a new juxtaposition: the bilateral relationship of those two peoples. And some of the story is new to me: while the initial colonization of the New World was a single story, American histories often skip over Britain's 16th Century attempts -- unsuccessful mostly -- to settle an uncharted continent while fighting an Atlantic war with Spain.
Other readers will gain new insights from the multiple new threads as the US separates and the relationship becomes more complicated. It's not merely a history of US-British diplomacy (and wars, and war scares as late as 1895) but of the other connections: culturally, the visits and influence of artists as diverse as Charles Dickens, the Beatles, and BBC television programming; lingustically, what Noah Webster did for American independence of British English (e.g., "color," not 'colour'); socially, the transatlantic marriages of such important figures as Jennie Jerome (mother of Winston Churchill), Consuelo Vanderbilt (later Duchess of Marlborough), and Mrs. Wallis Simpson (nemesis of Edward VIII's reign); financially, the impact of trade, currency and new monetary systems.
Indeed, it's a revelation to read how the UK would suffer, post-WWII, in the wake of a US decision to terminate Lend-Lease. Britain's economy did decline as its empire contracted during the 20th Century, of course, independent of the USA, but it's worth reflecting on how the decline of the pound sterling would worry US administrations through the 1960s and 70s in particular. Britain's inability to afford a Great Power's military, from 1945 on, would require significant changes in the USA's deployments as East of Suez (as phrased) would become a vacuum and not the UK's last contributions to world defense strategy.
The book does trace how leaders' friendships -- FDR-Churchill, JFK-Macmillan, Reagan-Thatcher, Bush/Clinton-Blair -- did affect recent security challenges. However, the post-9/11 period seems to be a coda in this narrative, which the author admits will need re-examining in future years when more material (and less emotion) becomes available to historians. Still, the author has made a fine contribution to an important topic, and shows how it came up to 9/11.
Above all, it's how two civilizations shared imbalances in power, economy and prestige, from a small post-colonial US facing the Empire at its peak, to a post-imperial Britain trying to find a niche with a superpower.
The work itself is worthwhile for anyone interested in history, since it goes through an old story -- the histories of America and Britain from colonial days -- in a new juxtaposition: the bilateral relationship of those two peoples. And some of the story is new to me: while the initial colonization of the New World was a single story, American histories often skip over Britain's 16th Century attempts -- unsuccessful mostly -- to settle an uncharted continent while fighting an Atlantic war with Spain.
Other readers will gain new insights from the multiple new threads as the US separates and the relationship becomes more complicated. It's not merely a history of US-British diplomacy (and wars, and war scares as late as 1895) but of the other connections: culturally, the visits and influence of artists as diverse as Charles Dickens, the Beatles, and BBC television programming; lingustically, what Noah Webster did for American independence of British English (e.g., "color," not 'colour'); socially, the transatlantic marriages of such important figures as Jennie Jerome (mother of Winston Churchill), Consuelo Vanderbilt (later Duchess of Marlborough), and Mrs. Wallis Simpson (nemesis of Edward VIII's reign); financially, the impact of trade, currency and new monetary systems.
Indeed, it's a revelation to read how the UK would suffer, post-WWII, in the wake of a US decision to terminate Lend-Lease. Britain's economy did decline as its empire contracted during the 20th Century, of course, independent of the USA, but it's worth reflecting on how the decline of the pound sterling would worry US administrations through the 1960s and 70s in particular. Britain's inability to afford a Great Power's military, from 1945 on, would require significant changes in the USA's deployments as East of Suez (as phrased) would become a vacuum and not the UK's last contributions to world defense strategy.
The book does trace how leaders' friendships -- FDR-Churchill, JFK-Macmillan, Reagan-Thatcher, Bush/Clinton-Blair -- did affect recent security challenges. However, the post-9/11 period seems to be a coda in this narrative, which the author admits will need re-examining in future years when more material (and less emotion) becomes available to historians. Still, the author has made a fine contribution to an important topic, and shows how it came up to 9/11.
Above all, it's how two civilizations shared imbalances in power, economy and prestige, from a small post-colonial US facing the Empire at its peak, to a post-imperial Britain trying to find a niche with a superpower.
October 5, 2008
Actually, it's really only 650 pages- the footnotes take up 200. Whatever you want to say about this behemoth, it is not a "difficult read," rather, it's more like a New Yorker (or Atlantic Monthly) article. In other words, its more about synthesis and style then great, ground-breaking historical ideas.
The subject is British-American relations from the beginning to the end. It is a pet peeve when historians end their history in the present- invariably the last chapter is a jumbled collision of facts without perspective. Burk proceeds chronologically and alternates between standard political/economic history and social/gender/class history. In that way Burk manages to integrate and synthesize alot of different works, from both Britain and America. And that is a good thing.
But let's not get carried away in terms of congratulating the subject as being original to Burk. During the beginning of the book, I was reminded strongly of the thesis of David Hackett Fisher's "Albion Seed"(That the character of America was largely shaped by four distinct regional cultures that settled in different parts of America.) Her treatment of the pre-to-post Revolutionary period basically reads like Fisher's book with the political history thrown in.
During her lengthy treatment of British Foreign Policy between the Revolution and the Civil War, she sounds like AJP Taylor in "The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918". I appreciate her valiant efforts to make endless treaty negotiations over the implications of the Monroe Doctrine (That no European power would interfere in the Americas) on the Venezuela/Guyanese border during the 1870s interesting, but at a certain point diplomatic machinations leave me cold.
Indeed, if there is a single complaint to be made about Old World, New World it is, "Enough with the diplomatic history already." That is not a story that has withered from the lack of telling. I found her treatment of the second world war to be uninspiring at best.
There is also a complete failure to comprehensively discuss the cultural/commerical interchange between the US and Britain after World War II. That is unfortunate, since it's such a fertile area for cross-border scholarship.
Ultimately it's a decent, contemporary synthesis of Anglo-American relations, but it's not that heavy.
The subject is British-American relations from the beginning to the end. It is a pet peeve when historians end their history in the present- invariably the last chapter is a jumbled collision of facts without perspective. Burk proceeds chronologically and alternates between standard political/economic history and social/gender/class history. In that way Burk manages to integrate and synthesize alot of different works, from both Britain and America. And that is a good thing.
But let's not get carried away in terms of congratulating the subject as being original to Burk. During the beginning of the book, I was reminded strongly of the thesis of David Hackett Fisher's "Albion Seed"(That the character of America was largely shaped by four distinct regional cultures that settled in different parts of America.) Her treatment of the pre-to-post Revolutionary period basically reads like Fisher's book with the political history thrown in.
During her lengthy treatment of British Foreign Policy between the Revolution and the Civil War, she sounds like AJP Taylor in "The Struggle for Mastery in Europe 1848-1918". I appreciate her valiant efforts to make endless treaty negotiations over the implications of the Monroe Doctrine (That no European power would interfere in the Americas) on the Venezuela/Guyanese border during the 1870s interesting, but at a certain point diplomatic machinations leave me cold.
Indeed, if there is a single complaint to be made about Old World, New World it is, "Enough with the diplomatic history already." That is not a story that has withered from the lack of telling. I found her treatment of the second world war to be uninspiring at best.
There is also a complete failure to comprehensively discuss the cultural/commerical interchange between the US and Britain after World War II. That is unfortunate, since it's such a fertile area for cross-border scholarship.
Ultimately it's a decent, contemporary synthesis of Anglo-American relations, but it's not that heavy.
February 22, 2016
A very interesting look at a familiar story (from the colonial era to 9/11) from the fresh angle of the "special" relationship between Great Britain and America. What is interesting about Burk's particular focus is in how it brings to light the non-linear (and complicated) nature of a perceivably linear story. Even to recognize the pursuit of colonialism as a fragmented process of success and failure, and to set it in light of both a blurred early American identity along with the isolation of European and New World conflicts is a reminder of how development... any development really, whether political, religious, cultural or social, is a mix of a large bag of polarizing and competing dynamics. It also helps to remind us that some things never change.
Burk sheds some light on some lesser known parts of the growing shift between the Old World and New World politics, including the cultural shifts, the language shifts (I never realized that Webster played such a massive role in anchoring the American identity), and even the place of marrying across the Old/New world divide. In all of this though, one thing rang the loudest as I followed Burk through the shift of one world power (Great Britain) giving away to a new one (America). So much of the relationship between the Old world and the New world was determined by two parties who never truly learned to trust each other. All through the pages paranoia surrounding self interest rings large and true. And yet, as Burk reflects in the closing chapter, there remains something intriguing about the continued British/American relationship on a global scale that seems to persist across war, politics, and vested interests. It is when two parties recognize that they need each other, which is where history always seems to end up, that trust is demanded.
Burk sheds some light on some lesser known parts of the growing shift between the Old World and New World politics, including the cultural shifts, the language shifts (I never realized that Webster played such a massive role in anchoring the American identity), and even the place of marrying across the Old/New world divide. In all of this though, one thing rang the loudest as I followed Burk through the shift of one world power (Great Britain) giving away to a new one (America). So much of the relationship between the Old world and the New world was determined by two parties who never truly learned to trust each other. All through the pages paranoia surrounding self interest rings large and true. And yet, as Burk reflects in the closing chapter, there remains something intriguing about the continued British/American relationship on a global scale that seems to persist across war, politics, and vested interests. It is when two parties recognize that they need each other, which is where history always seems to end up, that trust is demanded.
May 10, 2015
A very good book on America and Britain's "special relationship" from the first colonies in 1607 to the present day. Kathleen Burk, an American historian who teaches in Britain, provides a unique perspective to this topic. The result is a historical narrative that is incredibly insightful as well as informative. Particularly interesting were the chapters on U.S.-British cultural exchanges during the nineteenth century and the chapter on the U.S-British relationship following the end of World War II. In the chapter on cultural exchanges, Burk gives an penetrating analysis on how the U.S.'s culture slowly but surely expanded its literary possibilities and, ultimately, overtook British culture in the realm of movies and television in the 20th century. And, contrary to popular belief, Burk shows in her final chapter that the U.S.-British relationship was not always so cozy in the post-1945 world. In short, this is a fine and ambitious study of one of the U.S.'s most important relationships.
September 13, 2010
I'm particularly interested in the history of England and North Amerca during the 18th Century, including the expulsion of the Acadians, colonial Canada, the expansionism of colonial New England, the Alongquin Nation, and the influence of Anglo-French politics.
The author, historian Kathleen Burk, tells the story about our 400 year realtionship with broad strokes from each side, beginning with the English exploration of the New World and will eventually take up the present alliance in Iraq. So far it's pretty absorbing.
The author, historian Kathleen Burk, tells the story about our 400 year realtionship with broad strokes from each side, beginning with the English exploration of the New World and will eventually take up the present alliance in Iraq. So far it's pretty absorbing.
June 3, 2016
An engaging and much needed new diplomatic history of Anglo-American relations since the 17th century. It's an eye-opener and sweeps away much of the mythology of the "special relationship" while still demonstrating what a profound link it is to this day.
November 14, 2013
Informative, but dry.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews