Wealth, Power, and the New International Order

Britain and the American Challenge in the 1920s

Bibliographic Data

ID16530673
AuthorsBRIAN McKERCHER, B J G McKercher (corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume12
Issue4
Pages411-442
Publication date1988-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiplomatic History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-2096 • E-ISSN: 1467-7709
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-7709.1988.tb00035.x
OpenAlexW2087535621
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited24

In response to a question on my part, Mr. Lippmann expressed the opinion that the “Big Navy Movement” in the United States was by no means entirely due to a determination never again to allow another country to “write the rules of maritime warfare” as we did during the recent war. That determination, he said, was, of course, a factor in the movement, but a less important factor than the vague desire of Americans (which the “Big Navy” people would be able more or less successfully to ferment so long as the Anglo-American naval controversy continued), to show us in particular, and the world in general, that they are now “top dog.” A dominant theme in the historiography of twentieth-century international relations is that Britain's decline as the preeminent global power, and its replacement by the United States, began during World War I and was confirmed in the 1920s. It is argued that this reversal resulted from an unprecedented increase in American economic strength that outweighed any advantages Britain possessed. A recent analysis of American relations with Europe after 1918 puts it succinctly: “The United States emerged from the Great War as the world's leading nation.”2 Neither the latter study nor others that have been produced in the past two decades and share its thesis suggest that Britain had been completely eclipsed by the United States.3 Nonetheless, the general tenor of all of them is that Britain's fate was sealed by the end of the 1920s and that because of the successful economic challenge mounted by the United States during the war, and because of the diplomatic and armed potential that economic power implied, Britain's inevitable decline had begun

Economic history · Economics · Historiography · International relations · Navy · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Theme (computing · World War II · Australian History and Society · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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