America: from White Settlement to World Hegemony
by Victor Kiernan 
(Zed Books £14.99)

First published in 1978 in the aftermath of the disastrous defeat of the US in Vietnam, this book is a timely re-print of the second edition from 2005, which also included the short preface by Eric Hobsbawn.

Legendary communist historian Victor Kiernan, recognised by Edward Said as the “great Scottish historian of empire,” wrote in a classical historical style which makes for an incredible and compelling analysis of the different phases of US imperialism, that have led to it becoming a global world power without any serious opposition. 

From Wounded Knee through to Syria scholars have debated the nature of that threat, but most of it is focused on current events.

This though is a sweeping historical journey which defines and places US imperialism through an encyclopaedic knowledge of history, literature and politics. Nothing escapes Kiernan’s reach and he covers all of US history, treating it as virtually a mirror held to its imperialism.

He begins his account with the Puritan settlers “building in the wilderness the better society that the Levellers tried in vain to build in England.” 

Accounts of relations between Native Americans and white settlers, readings of the work of Melville and Whitman, the lure of Latin America, analysis of the way money and politics became so inextricably intertwined, are a few among much else that informs this work.

The US “could not take itself for granted, but had need of ideas, convictions, speculations, to grow up round; also of a guiding power to put its trust in, a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire. Its aspirations were never confined within its own elastic frontiers, but embraced all human destinies ... the rest of humanity was only passive raw material, clay to be moulded by the potter’s hand.”

John Trumphour’s reflective epilogue: The American Imperium: from the Cold War to the Age of Al-Qaeda and Isis provides an insight into his analysis of the US empire and particularly the difficulties it faces in a 21st-century world of prolonged technological wars that simply refuse to go away.

Kiernan’s work helps explain such issues as the application of seemingly unlimited military power, a lack of respect for international agreements and the right to pre-emptive defence.

It is not the easiest read as his style can be at times an obstacle to clarity but it is still a rich and graphic account of why the world is such an unsafe place today.

Review by Bob Oram