Leadership, Vision and the Making of the Post-War Order – In Conversation with James Holland

It is little over a year since Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced a raise in tariffs on foreign imports into the US for nearly every country in the world. ‘Liberation Day’ as he branded 2nd April 2025, and the fall-out from it, was the provocation that historian James Holland cited when discussing his latest book, ⁠The Visionaries: The Making of the Post World War II Order in the West⁠⁠, a noticeable pivot from his back catalogue of battlefield histories.

“I was really struck by what was going on with the current administration in the United States, the tariffs and the bullying tactics,” begins Holland in his interview with Phil Craig for Aspects of History (available to download as a podcast above). “It struck me that this was in such marked contrast to the very successful alternative approach taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt. You can moan and get cross about it, or you can actually do something about it.”