This book examines how intangible aspects of international relations including identity, memory, representation, and symbolic perception have helped to shape the development and contribute to the endurance of the Anglo-American special relationship. Challenging traditional interpretations of US-UK relations and breaking new ground with fresh analyses of cultural symbols, discourses, and ideologies, this volume fills important gaps in our collective understanding of the special relationships operation and exposes new analytical spaces in which we can re-evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. Designed to breathe new life into old debates about the relationships purported specialness, this book offers a multidisciplinary exploration of literary representations, screen representations, political representations, representations in memory, and the influence of cultural connections and constructs which have historically animated Anglo-American interaction.

Robert M. Hendershot is Professor of History in the Department of Social Sciences at Grand Rapids Community College, MichiganSteve Marsh is Reader in International Relations at Cardiff University

Introduction Robert M. Hendershot and Steve Marsh 1 TowardsSomething Fresh? P.G. Wodehouse, transatlantic romances in fiction and the Anglo-American relationship Finn Pollard2 America in British history textbooks Srdjan Vucetic 3 Film follows the flag: cultural and economic relations between the British film industry and Hollywood Jonathan Stubbs4 DebatingDownton: Anglo-American realities and relations Dana Cooper5 Anglo-American political culture Alan P. Dobson6 Pageantry, legitimation, and special Anglo-American relations Steve Marsh7 A great Englishman: George Washington and Anglo-American memory diplomacy,c. 18901925 Sam Edwards 8 Anglo-American narratives in public space: evaluating commemoration and generational transmission of the special relationship Robert M. Hendershot9 Beatlemania and the cultural politics of 1960s America Thomas C. Mills10 Culture and re-membering the alliance in Kosovo and Iraq: Anglo-American ironies under Clinton, Blair, and Bush David RyanConclusion: culture, specialness, and new directions Robert M. Hendershot and Steve MarshSelected bibliographyIndex