By Kevin Phillips

The Cousins’ Wars, by Kevin Phillips, is an attempt to answer an intriguing question: why does the world speak English? Stated differently, why is English the first or second language for much of the world, and why is the Anglo-American culture the dominant culture?

The question is intriguing when you think of England as a nation sharing a relatively small island off the coast of Europe. What is it that turned a second-rate 16th Century power into the world’s most powerful nation in the 17th and 18th Century? And what made the United States the world’s most dominant nation in the 20th and (thus far) 21st Century?

Phillips argues that it was a unique combination of conditions in East Anglia, which spread throughout the United Kingdom and then the United States. These include religious diversity and tolerance, mercantilism, high literacy, a democratic tradition, and an assertion of destiny (as the new “chosen people”).

The title comes from three significant wars between English speaking peoples – the English Civil War, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War/War Between the States. In each case, Phillips argues, the “right” side won the cousins’ war – that is, the more religiously tolerant, mercantile, literate, and democratic won the war (the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, the Americans in the Revolution and the Union in the Civil War). And, Phillips argues, each war had a beneficial effect on the opposite side of the Atlantic: the colonists received a significant boost from the English Civil War, and the British benefited from the American Revolution and America’s cousins’ war.

Phillips also has an interesting observation about Anglo-American culture, and that it is not dependent upon an Anglo genealogical heritage. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Polish-Americans, etc., are as “Anglo” as white-Anglo-Saxon protestants to the extent that they share and expound the principals which led to the Anglo-American eminence.

The Cousins’ War is a difficult read. I picked it up and put it down several times, before I finished it. I will someday. I do recommend it for anyone interested in this theme, and who has the necessary persistence.