From the Transatlantic to the Transnational: Reflections on the Changing Shape of International History

The first of Kathleen Burk's many books, based on her Oxford D. Phil. dissertation, was Britain, America and the Sinews of War, 1914-1918 (1985). This explored a hitherto neglected aspect of the Great War when Britain became dependent on American supplies and finance to maintain its war effort. By the autumn of 1916 two million pounds of the five million needed every day by the British Treasury in order to prosecute the war came from the United States. "If things go on as at present," the Chancellor of the Exchequer warned, "I venture to say with certainty that by next June or earlier the President of the American Republic will be in a position, if he wishes, to dictate his own terms to us." The situation did improve somewhat after the United States entered the war in April 1917, but Britain's underlying dependence remained. The war had mobilised America as a global financial power, whilst also permanently sapping Britain's economic strength. In retrospect the period can be seen as a turning point in Anglo-American relations and, indeed, in global history.