The final clear note of the Liberty Bell sounded in Philadelphia for the last time on the occasion of George Washington's birthday in February 1846. That same day, after almost a century of service, it cracked irreparably. For Tristram Riley-Smith, a British civil servant posted for several years to Her Majesty's embassy in Washington, dc, and now back working in Whitehall, the silenced bell, which was cast in London's Whitechapel, has provided not only the title of this engaging and ambitious book but also a metaphor for its central idea.
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