Atlantic Archive: UK-US Relations in an Age of Global War 1939-1945

Britain’s relationship with the United States changed fundamentally in the first half of the twentieth century, and the period 1939 to 1945 was particularly significant in this transformation. Britain was overtaken by the United States as the world’s foremost economic power, it became dependent on the US to achieve its foreign policy goals of maintaining the balance-of-power in Europe and its colonial empire abroad, and surrendered ‘English’ cultural hegemony to the US as Hollywood films, jazz and other cultural forms developed a global brand and appeal.

The above paragraph is from the Atlantic Archive blog. The blog documents a research project at the Institute for the Study of the Americas examining British opinion towards the United States during WWII within political, economic and cultural frames.

The main output of the project is a free online database of digitised British government reports from that time.

Over 5,000 documents from the National Archives have already been digitised including the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. reports on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s controversial decision to run for president a third time in 1940.

To explore the Atlantic Archive database and to find out how you can get involved in the project, visit the project blog.