How did the United States go from being a mere hemispheric power in 1914 to a worldwide superpower after World War II? This book, The United States of Empire: The Passing of the Mantle from the United Kingdom to the United States, details the rise of an up-and-coming lightweight on the global scene to becoming the ruling heavyweight. It looks at the fact that before 1914 United Kingdom ruled the waves and was the "empire where the sun never sets." After two world wars, the United Kingdom was broke and the empire was breaking up. It was left to the former colony of the United Kingdom, the country that was the deciding factor in both world wars, United States, to back down and defeat the Soviet Union. After World War II the Cold War waxed and waned, but when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the United States was left standing as the world's sole superpower. In a pre-politically correct era, it would be called what in fact it has become, the United States of Empire.