Dreamworlds of Race

The author takes up the ideas of dozens of thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic, from the celebrated to the obscure, though central to the book is a quartet of noteworthy figures: Andrew Carnegie, W. T. Stead, Cecil J. Rhodes, and H. G. Wells. Campaigning groups were established; transatlantic networks were formed; articles, pamphlets, books and speeches were written and disseminated - all with the aim of emphasising unity. Proposals for institutionalising transatlantic links ranged from the modest to the extraordinarily bold. The former included strengthening defence co-operation, deepening economic connections, and co-ordinating imperial strategy, while the latter encompassed plans for the creation of novel forms of political community, even a single transatlantic state. And much of the thinking was underpinned by ideas about race and a shared Anglo-Saxon cultural inheritance.