Invisible Hands - The American Century

David Dimbleby tells the story of how in the middle of the 20th century one country - America - became a superpower and shaped the world around it.

It began with a vision. A vision born out of the ashes of World War Two. A vision of a world shaped not by war but by peace. This vision of America at the head of the free world came to be the defining idea at the centre of the past 80 years of world politics. Yet now, it is under threat.

So how did we get here? How did America become the leader of the free world - and how and why did it start to go wrong? It's a story shaped by people. People you have probably never heard of, such as the Chekhov obsessed bureaucrat who wrote the most important telegram in history. The Calvinist spy who created a covert war machine. And the American Rasputin who led the country to military disaster.

In the 20th Century, these 'invisible hands' wrote the story America came to believe about itself. A story of moral leadership leading to prosperity and peace. But is it a story that has run out of steam?