@article {Newman:2008-06-01T00:00:00:1477-5700:161, author =
"Newman, Simon P", title = "Losing the Faith: British Historians
and the Last Best Hope", journal = "Comparative American
Studies", volume = "6", number = "2", year =
"2008-06-01T00:00:00", abstract = "This essay explores the ways
in which historians in Britain developed American history,
focusing on attitudes towards the founding of the American
republic. With reference to such historians as Goldwin Smith,
Lord Acton, Winston Churchill, and Denis Brogan, the essay
traces how they helped legitimate the United States as a subject
of serious study, and the ways in which their work informed the
creation of American Studies in Britain. Historians and students
in Britain came to respect the ideals on which the American
republic had been founded: against the backdrop of international
fascism and communism the United States represented freedom and
political progress. More recently, however, British ideas about
American exceptionalism have faded, as interna