The United States of Empire-The Passing of the Mantle From the United Kingdom to the United States is my first book.  As the title suggests, it explains how the US went from being just a hemispheric power to a world-wide one.  I state that we inherited, absconded, stole, was duped into the empire that once defined the United Kingdom.  It was through both World Wars One and Two that the empire is transferred; and that they have to be seen as inherent parts of a two-act drama.  Usually, one or the other is studied, but through both wars we gained what the mother country lost.