If ever a nation came to embody the positivity of the latter half of the twentieth century it is the USA. Few countries grew and prospered the way America managed to do. The nation’s coming of age saw a remarkable flowering not just in innovation and manufacturing, but a seeming realisation of the American Dream, a way of life largely free of the strictures and values of the Old World. Having apparently managed to slay the demon that was economic depression the US emerged triumphant from the Second World War convinced that it was divinely ordained to take its place as champion and arbiter of the ‘Free World’.