A New History

America, Empire of Liberty

David Reynolds, FBA, is Professor of International History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Christ's College. He is the author or editor of ten books on aspects of twentieth-century history, including One World Divisible: A Global History since 1945 (2000) and In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War (2004) which was awarded the Wolfson History Prize. Both of these books are available as Penguin paperbacks. His most recent book, Summits, was also a six-part BBC TV series which he wrote and presented.

It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great 'empire of liberty.' In the first new one-volume history in two decades, David Reynolds takes Jefferson's phrase as a key to the saga of America - helping unlock both its grandeur and its paradoxes. He examines how the anti-empire of 1776 became the greatest superpower the world has seen, how the country that offered liberty and opportunity on a scale unmatched in Europe nevertheless founded its prosperity on the labour of black slaves and the dispossession of the Native Americans. He explains how these tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faith - both the evangelical Protestantism that has energized U.S. politics since the foundation of the nation and the larger faith in American righteousness that has impelled the country's expansion. Reynolds' account is driven by a compelling argument which illuminates our contemporary world.

Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

In Command of History

Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History 2004

David Reynolds is Professor of International History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Christ's College. He is the author of two prize winning studies of Anglo-American relations in World War Two - The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937-1941 and Rich Relations: the American Occupation of Britain, 1942-1945 - and One World Divisible: A Global History Since 1945.

Churchill fought the war twice over - as Prime Minister and again as its premier historian. In 1948-54 he published six volumes of memoirs which secured his reputation and shaped our understanding of the conflict to this day. 
 
Using the drafts and correspondence for The Second World War, David Reynolds opens our eyes to Churchill the author and to the research 'syndicate' on whom he depended. We see how the memoirs were censored by Whitehall to conceal secrets such as the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, and how Churchill himself censored them to avoid offending current world leaders. 
 
This book forces us to reconsider much received wisdom about the war and illuminates an unjustly neglected period of his life - the Second Wilderness Years of 1945-51, when Churchill, now over seventy, wrote himself into history, politicked himself back into Downing Street and delivered some of the most important speeches of his career.

A Global History Since 1945

One World Divisible

David Reynolds is Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge. His previous books include The CREATION OF THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE and RICH RELATIONS: THE AMERICAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN.

The second half of the twentieth century was dominated by the unfolding drama of the Cold War, from the Berlin blockade to the fall of the Berlin Wall. A booming global economy has had its sinister shadow in the apparently insoluble crises that havebeset much of the Third World. Above all, peace in the West has been offset by wars of unbelievable murderousness elsewhere. Reynolds' account is both an overview of the trends underlying this spectacular and awful variety, and an insight into the lives led in its midst.

David Reynolds

"Reynolds' presentation combines enthusiasm with authority, and his insightful and far-ranging text is augmented by a wealth of archive voices, from speeches to people in the street"

"Reynolds' vigorous presentation of his sweep of American history, and the interwoven voices and news reports of the time, make for striking immediacy"

The complete BBC Radio 4 series

David Reynolds’ major BBC Radio 4 series explores the origins of contemporary USA from its beginnings to the present day 
 
This epic narrative tells America’s story through the voices of those who lived it - presidents and farmers, mothers and children, settlers and soldiers, slaves and Indians. The series celebrates the country’s achievements but also examines its paradoxes by investigating three abiding themes of American life: empire, liberty and faith. 
 
Empire of Liberty: From the arrival of Native Americans from Asia, to the slave trade and the forced relocation of the Indians, the first series describes how the US expanded to cover a whole continent, laying the foundations of a superpower - if the country could remain united. 
Power &amp; Progress: The second series depicts the tragedy and heroism of the Civil War (1861-65), which finally ended slavery - though not racial discrimination - and the dynamism of the reunited nation as it grew into an industrial giant. America’s role in the Second World War is also examined. 
Empire &amp; Evil: The final series chronicles America’s long struggle with the Soviet Union, and examines the effect of that confrontation on American values, particularly in Vietnam and Watergate. The country’s struggle to overcome its racist past led from the Civil Rights Movement to its first black president. Also examined is the impact of Elvis on popular music, the battle over abortion and the story of the personal computer and the information revolution.

David Reynolds

Praise for America: Empire of Liberty

"Reynolds' presentation combines enthusiasm with authority, and his insightful and far-ranging text is augmented by a wealth of archive voices, from speeches to people in the street"

"Reynolds' vigorous presentation of his sweep of American history, and the interwoven voices and news reports of the time, make for striking immediacy"

Books by David Reynolds

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