SOCIAL SCIENCES

Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945-1957

Farrar. Oct. 2018. 624p. notes. index. ISBN 9780374250720. $35; ebk. ISBN 9780374714062. HIST
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OrangeReviewStarEver since the end of World War II, many Americans have come to believe that the United States is the most dominant nation in the world, replacing the declining British empire. Leebaert (Magic and Mayhem) presents a counterargument in this smoothly written and well-sourced narrative. In the years after the conflict, contends Leebaert, the British sought to recover their sovereignty, but the effects of two world wars in the space of 25 years severely challenged its economy, and the empire struggled to recover its strength in the face of rising powers during the 1950s. Leebaert maintains that it was not until the Suez Crisis in 1956 that the British were finally forced to recognize that the United States no longer needed to defer to the British government in international matters.
VERDICT This excellent history reflects the quality of scholarship that Leebaert displayed in his remarkable work, The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Shapes Our World. Recommended for all collections.
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