Special Relationship: A Political History of Anglo-American Relations since 1945

Circumstances have required Britain and the United States to act in close partnership with each other for much of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, before the start of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and the growing threat posed by Nazi Germany, there was no hint of anything 'special' in the official relations between London and Washington. Indeed, without the actions of the aggressor states, relations might well have been dominated by disputes over economic questions.