A Straight Deal

Set in the anxious, rumor-haunted years of war, this essayistic work takes aim at the anti-British passions that shaped American opinion and asks how much of national hostility is inherited rather than earned. Through letters from soldiers, sailors, businessmen, editors, and ordinary correspondents, it pits firsthand experience and practical judgment against schoolbook distortions, wartime propaganda, and the stubborn pride that turns disagreement into prejudice. Moving from the American Revolution to the Civil War and into World War I, the book revisits Lincoln's secession crisis, Fort Sumter, Britain's divided response to the Union, and later clashes such as the Venezuelan crisis to show how often the two nations' interests have overlapped. It argues that England was America's indispensable ally in wartime, that public caricatures of British motives are historically shallow, and that cooperation better serves liberty, law, and world peace than permanent rivalry. Sharp satire, historical reflection, and debate combine in a forceful defense of Anglo-American understanding. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.