The Anglo-Saxon Century and the Unification of the English-Speaking People

In 1903, as the twentieth century opened, an American thinker made a bold argument: the English-speaking peoples, bound by blood and language, should unite under a single political banner to shape the world's future. John R. Dos Passos surveys the recent past the Spanish-American War, the Boer War, the American acquisition of the Philippines and sees proof that Anglo-Saxon nations have arrived as history's dominant force. He traces the cultural and historical threads connecting Britain and America, arguing that their union is not merely desirable but inevitable, a necessary alliance to advance civilization and prevent the catastrophic wars he believes otherwise loom. Written with the conviction of a manifesto rather than a textbook, this book captures a moment when imperial optimism reached its peak and intellectuals seriously believed they could architect the world's next great age. Reading it now feels like peering into an alternate history that never came to pass: the optimistic assumptions about Anglo-Saxon destiny, the confident predictions about global harmony through empire, the racial theories that undergirded it all. It is a document of its time, but one that reveals how closely the roots of the modern "Special Relationship" were entangled with imperial ambition and racial hierarchy.