Transatlantic Century Summary

Mary Norton’s “The Transatlantic Century: Europe and America 1890-2010”, is in some ways a tribute to the expeditious rise of the American influence on a global scale. Indeed, her narrative is not all praises and glory but, a tale of how American influence evolved and imprinted itself on the world through transatlantic relations. Already a powerful economic engine, prior to the Great War, the US leads in all areas specifically economically. At the end of World War II, America harbored a tremendous sense of power in the world felt by all, in many private and public spaces. Nolan carefully articulates that subsequently after the fall of the Soviet Union and the Cold War’s demise the construction of America’s powerful influence in the world came full-circle and was deemed complete however, during the 21st century this crown of superdome came with challengers, such as China and others, but Norton emphasizes that the success of American influence in the world is critically due to its ability to foster key transatlantic relationships.
Nolan’s book is a chronologically themed investigation that focuses on those critical transatlantic …show more content…
While it is difficult to pen a twelve page review of Norton’s text in a few pages or less, at the heart of her argument is the notion that while Europe and its nation-states influenced the world in the nineteenth-century, the twenty-first century gave rise to American influence, ideals, culture, economics and military prowess. Nevertheless questions loom as to if at the end of this grand birth of the “American Century”, can America retain, and remain relevant in its position, and continue to foster critical transatlantic relationships in the next