Customer Reviews

Anglo-American Establishment

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a very interesting book. It was written in 1949, and it seems that Quigley noticed a powerful group who steadily built a very large and successful propaganda machine which was very influential upon British Imperial and foreign policy between the two World Wars. The writing style can be cumbersome at times, especially when detailing personal connections between some of the actors, most of whom are unknown to modern American readers.

To start off with, he makes known that Cecil Rhodes in his first 5 wills wanted to leave his inheritance to start a secret society to preserve and expand the British Empire. Quigley maintains that this society was formed in 1891, consisting of Rhodes, William Stead(influential British columnist), Lord Esher(influential advisor to the royal family), and Alfred Milner(later Commissioner in South Africa). They were to form a sort of 'old boy' network, where they would try to recruit like-minded influential people and bring them on board.

They pioneered the use of study groups to float ideas around and criticize them to anticipate opposition. When they reached sufficient consensus(this was facilitated by participants being all liberal imperialists), they would use their collective influence to get their project implemented. They used their influence at universities as recruiting grounds for people of ability. Using money from trusts such as the Rhodes Trust, Beit Trust, Carnegie Trust, they set up and controlled chairs and lectureships at universities to study foreign relations and Imperial affairs. By using their power of patronage, they filled these posts with fellow liberal imperialists.

They also controlled the Times, the Round Table, and created the Royal Institute for International Affairs. He also claims that they controlled or influenced other publications, such as the Economist. By creating studies and publishing books on foreign affairs, controlling the journals and periodicals that review them, they were in a position to influence or mold public opinion on foreign policy matters. For example, by controlling the Times Literary Supplement, they would give favorable reviews to books supporting their viewpoint. Books not supporting their viewpoint would not get reviewed, or would get rubbished. This practice is going strong today.

He also showed how the Royal Institute of International Affairs became the defacto research branch of the Foreign Office. Thus briefing material and area research to inform Foreign Office officials would originate from this group. The Council on Foreign Relations fulfills this role for the US Government today.

What Quigley describes is the creation of a permanant mandarin class and network, established by wealthy and influential people, a turning point in Western society. The 19th century and the cheapness and availability of weapons tended for more democratic power arrangements. By the late 19th century, industrialization and the rise of big business and big banking, led to less democratic power arrangements. Quigley describes how an influential group in England altered the power arrangements of that country, to effectively control its foreign and imperial policy. Such arrangements, unfortunately, are only too clear to see in the United States as well.

Bill Clinton's Anglophile, one-world mentor, Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown, first attracted the interest of the John Birch Society and other conspiratorialists in the 1960s with his Tragedy and Hope, in which he revealed that an unelected, unaccountable elite had played a major, though hidden, role in directing the British empire in the first decades of the twentieth century. The Anglo-American Establishment is a detailed account of the growth and operations of that group, from its origins in Cecil Rhodes' secret society and its flowering under Sir Alfred Milner to its role in fostering the Commonwealth of Nations. Indispensable for anyone who seeks a case study to verify Disraeli's assertion that "the world is governed by far other than those whom the public believe to be its rulers."

The Anglo-American Establishment by Carroll Quigley

A must read for those who want to see America remain a sovereign nation.

Quigley gives a meticulous account of the history of the Rhodes scholarships, and those that implemented the desires set forth in the wills of Cecil Rhodes, the British diamond king and colonial statesman.

Since 1904, this scholarship has been used to train "men of ability and enthusiasm who find no suitable way to serve their country under the current political system" at Oxford Universary in England. The goal is uniting the world. These Rhodes scholars are now serving in key positions all over the world.

Much of the book is devoted to Sir Alfred Milner and the "Milner Group." Upon Rhodes' death, Milner obtained control of Rhodes' money and was able to use it to lubricate the working of propaganda throughout the world.

Quigley says of the Milner group: "No country that values its safety should allow what the Milner group accomplished - that is, that a small number of men would be able to wield such power in administration and politics, should be given almost complete control over the publication of documents relating to their actions, should be able to exercise such influence over the avenues of information that create public opinion, and should be able to monopolize so completely the writing and the teaching of the history of their own period."

Interestingly, a footnote in the concluding chapter states that the last important public act of the Milner group was the drawing of a Yugoslav boundary in 1946. After this the group, states Quigley, "ground its way to a finish of bitterness and ashes."

Could the present crisis in Yugoslavia and the use of "allied force" be a Phoenix rising from the ashes? Read the book and decide for yourself.

"The Anglo-American establishment" is a continuation of Quigley's major work "Tragedy and Hope." In this book Quigley lists many names of the Anglo-Saxon (means English descendant) round table and discusses the connection with their cohorts in the American establishment. Of course, Quigley had always potrayed the elitist organizations and plots as benign, and admitted on different occasions that they already have taken over the world financially, politically, and militarily if needed. He also conceded that it was too late for anyone to stop the Anglo-American establishment from ruling the world, and it is better to accept it as the new reality of the new world order.
Quigley proclaimed himself on many occasions as the historian of these elites, as they allowed him into their secret doors in order to have him research their steps and advocate for their causes, and rewrite the world history in their favor.
Tragedy and Hope is a much better book that than this one, but "The Anglo-American Establishment" might make anyway an interesting reading for the curious mind....

First off, the title of this book is a bit misleading, and thus, the book is not exactly what I expected. Judging by the title, I was expecting to read about the Americans of English heritage that hold most of the political and economic power in the US. It turns out that this is a history of a British secret society and their utopian plans for "spreading the British way of life." The only way it even relates to America is that the members were intent on gaining the US as a main ally in their endeavor, which at the time of the books publication in 1949, they were apparently yet to do. Despite the confusion, I found the book to be fascinating, although very tedious at times.

In the late 19th century, Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Milner and several of their cohorts started a secret society which sought to preserve and spread their beloved British culture around the world. According to Quigley, who admits his sympathy for their cause if not their methods, the group set out with nothing but the best intentions and sincerely believed that the world would be the better for it. Their first goal was to organize Britain's colonies into a group of federated states with equal status, or a Commonwealth of Nations as they called it. After that, they sought to gradually include more and more nations until the world was eventually united into one loosely knit federation. These men were utopians, says Quigley, and the book challenges the notion that British imperialism was simply about economic exploitation, but instead an attempt to bring what they saw as the pinnacle of human culture to the uncivilized masses. The following is a quote from an unnamed member of the group which seems to sum up their beliefs:

"The development of the British Empire teaches how moral convictions and devotion to duty have inspired the building of the structure. Opponents of Imperialism are wont to suggest that the story will not bear inspection, that it is largely a record of self-aggrandizment and greed. Such a charge betrays ignorance of its history....The end of the State is to make men, and its strength is measured not in terms of defensive armaments or economic prosperity but by the moral personality of its individual members that they shall not merely live but live well. Social reformers are prone to insist too strongly on an ideal of material comfort for the people...A life of satisfaction depends not on higher wages or lower prices or on leisure for recreation, but on work that calls into play the higher capacities of man's nature....The cry of the masses should not be for wages or comforts or even liberty, but for opportunities for enterprise and responsibility. A policy for closer union in the Empire is full of significance in relation to this demand. There is but one way of promise. It is that the peoples of the Empire shall realize their national unity and draw from that ideal an inspiration to common endeavour in the fulfillment of the moral obligations which their membership of the Empire entails. The recognition of common Imperial interests is bound to broaden both their basis of public action and their whole view of life. Public life is ennobled by great causes and by these alone...."

Besides Rhodes and Milner, some of the named members are; Lionel Curtis, Lord Halifax, Arthur Balfour, Nathan Rothschild, Waldorf and Nancy Astor, Arnold Toynbee and a host of others. Rather than just a single group though, there seems to have been a complicated network that included an inner core, an outer core and a sort of blurry peripheral with a number of indviduals who were not actually members but either sympathized with the group, or unwittingly furthered their goals. The group was heavily involved in the League of Nations and seems to have had a major influence on British foreign policy, especially in the years between and during WWI and WWII.

In the conclusion, WW2 had only recently ended and the group's future is uncertain. Quigley states that the group was already falling apart at this time so one wonders if it still exists today. I should note that the Council on Foreign Relations, which is still very active today, is listed as an offshoot of the British group Royal Institute of International Affairs, the latter being one of the main arms of the group. This book could be considered conspiracy theory territory but I didn't think any of it was particularly far-fetched, and it would seem that much of the information within is widely known to be true. All in all, a tedious but very interesting read.

This is a very interesting book on the history of the world from the 1890's to approximately 1970--with a twist. Professor Quigley explains how John Rhodes created a secret society that shaped most of the major events during that time period. This book is a must read for anyone trying to find out how events of the 20th century (The Boer War, World Wars I & II) were influenced by this secret society.
Recommended extra reading: "The Brotherhood of Darkness" by Dr. Stanley Monteith

The book gets five stars, not for holding one's interest nor its readability, but rather because it not only devolves the origins of the hidden criminal elements that were soon to control the US government, but more importantly, it devolves the tactics used to achieve this.

The relevance of the book lies not in England, but with the exporting of their ideas and methods to the US. I agree that this connection is loose and weak within this book itself and to form a clear picture of it, you need to add another source to accompany this reading. This other source is the subject of another of my reviews: The Invisible Government.

Now, the reader is armed with the necessary information he/she needs to make sense of it all. A key member of Cecil Rhodes's secret society and the beneficiary of ALL of Rhodes's vast wealth brought the game over to the US at the turn of the 20th century. His name was Lord Rothschild. This mega-elitist was already somewhat involved behind the American scenes, as he had access to the US Ambassador to England, John Hay. John Hay was a widely known internationalist. The remarkable event that pushed America toward Empire was John Hay's ascension to Secretary of State under President McKinley. This appointment marked a radical change in McKinley's foreign policy. At this point, the US began to look a whole lot like Great Britain. While GB was slaughtering the Dutch farmers (Boers) in South Africa, the US began its slaughter of the Filipinos. Both superpower utilized scorched-earth policies as they slaughtered women and children, burned huts and killed their livestock. It was as ugly as mankind's capabilities allow.

The secret society soon recruited Col. Edward M. House, who wrote "Phillip Dru: Administrator" and the US has never to this day escaped the clutches of the Anglo-American Establishment. For fuller details and to bring the story into the 21 century, see the book, Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept).

This book is a documentation of the actions of a secret society founded mostly by cecil rhodes whos agenda is to restore and keep power in the hands of british elites, however its really tough to read because it spends way to much time documenting the names and aristocratic ties and not too much time outlining the agenda and what it means to the world it is influencing. the author is way to easy on these power moguls and evens says that he agrees with their agenda, i recommend his other book the tragedy of hope

Carroll Quigley's account of the Milner Group is ambitious, but flawed by a poor writing style and inadequate documentation of its sources. Still, it is an excellent elaboration on Quigley's views that appeared in his later work, Tragedy and Hope.

Unfortunately, it will be difficult for future historians to follow up on Quigley's groundbreaking work, and he is already dismissed as unreliable and idiosyncratic by scholars who study the Milner Group today. This does not mean that readers of this book should also dismiss Quigley's arguments, but they should be wary of accepting them without some kind of historical evidence.

With these caveats in mind, The Anglo-American Establishment is well worth reading.

Before I bought this book, I knew nothing about the author, or his approach. Well, I appreciate the book for what it is -- a strictly historical text -- but I really don't like it at all, because what I was hoping for, is more of a social psychology/cultural anthropology book, that would EXAMINE the dynamics of the Anglo-American establishment, and its functioning as an underground supremacy movement.