Includes cuttings from the Sunday Dispatch for: "My American Notebook" on WSC's travels in California [United States], Redwood trees, visiting San Francisco [United States] and the Lick Observatory; "Where the Duke of Windsor [earlier Edward VIII] Will Govern", a brief history of the Bahamas, including pirates and wreckers, the American Civil War, the effect of Prohibition, and commenting on the residents and WSC's memories of the islands; "The American Problem" on United States prosperity, the Wall Street [New York] Crash, the Depression, and US agricultural failure in the 1930s; "Great Ancestor" on the career of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough, his victory at Blenheim [Germany], downfall in Britain, severance from Queen Anne, and self-exile; "August 4 - the Day when the World Began to Change" on the declaration of war against Germany in World War I, mobilisation in the British Empire, French losses, the Dardanelles [Turkey], the war of attrition, the entry of the United States into the War, and the final defeat of Germany; "The Rise of Japan" on the West opening diplomatic relations with Japan, Japanese industrialisation, the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1899, and the Russo-Japanese War.