Transition of Power

This book shows how Britain was replaced by the USA as chief global power, 1930–45.

This book shows how Britain was replaced as the only truly global power by the USA, crucially in the years 1930–45, a period marked by the crisis of the Great Depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and militaristic Japan as threats, and by the Second World War.This book addresses one of the least understood issues in modern international history: how, between 1930 and 1945, Britain lost its global pre-eminence to the United States. The crucial years are 1930 to 1940, for which until now no comprehensive examination of Anglo-American relations exists. Transition of Power analyses these relations in the pivotal decade, with an epilogue dealing with the Second World War after 1941. Britain and the United States, and their intertwined fates, were fundamental to the course of international history in these years. Professor McKercher's book dissects the various strands of the two powers' relationship in the fifteen years after 1930 from a British perspective - economic, diplomatic, naval and strategic.