This chapter explores how W. T. Stead and Cecil J. Rhodes imagined the future of the “English-speaking peoples.” It offers an analysis of Stead's views on utopia and religion, before tracing his early political endeavors. Stead argued in 1896 that the English-speaking race had a “world mission” to accomplish, and the “supreme thing for the English-speaking man is to recognize his place in what may be called the economy of the universe.” His self-appointed task was to reveal and disseminate this providential truth. The chapter also shows how he utilized the Review of Reviews to advocate a series of interconnected policies during the 1890s, including international arbitration, imperial consolidation, and increased naval spending, all of which were bound up with his dream of Anglo-America. The chapter then shifts to Stead's proposals for a federal racial union, focusing in particular on his arguments in The Americanization of the World, his most elaborate account of the dream. The remainder of the chapter discusses Rhodes' conception of empire, race, and Anglo-America, as well as his fantasy of a secret society to proselytize the cause of the “English race.” While Rhodes was clearly an advocate of a racial union, the chapter argues that the character of his vision, as well as its public presentation, was shaped by Stead.
