Opening paragraphs....................

     Twenty years after the Napoleonic War, and Britain, once fearful but now proud in her isolation, stood alone as the dominant power in the world,  Watchdog of the seven seas, workshop foreman of the world, welder of empires, her position appeared invulnerable.  Already historically minded Europeans were comparing their century to that one other period in human history when concentrated power had brought order and security to turbulent civilization - the second century after Christ - and, either in pride or in envy, were calling their age Pax Britannica.

Joseph Frazier Wall,  Andrew Carnegie