David Peat

EightPAUSING THE COSMOSA Dream of EnlightenmentAmericans felt confidence intheir world at the birth of the twentieth century. The decades aheadwould be unperturbed by the uncertainties of international politics,for America still adhered to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which declaredthe Western Hemisphere closed to further colonization and expressedthe U.S. policy of nonintervention abroad. An internationalpeace conference had been held in The Hague in 1899 and a year laterthe United States adopted the gold standard so that its paper moneywould always be backed up with something tangible.In that same period British children were taught that all those redareas on the map of the world were British colonies and protectorates.The British Empire, they were told, was much vaster than any empirein the history of the world. It literally spanned the globe, so that the187