Mr Nobody

This is the story of the most important person you've probably never heard of. The man who made the dollar the centre of the world. And America along with it.

His name is Harry Dexter White and, as an economist at the Treasury, he had a vision of how to ensure another conflict like World War Two would never happen again.

To do that he had to upend the whole structure of the world financial system - and make the US Dollar the most important currency on Earth. Standing in his way was the greatest celebrity economist of all time, John Maynard Keynes. The battle between these two men - and Harry Dexter White’s eventual victory - would come to define the next 80 years of world history.

And yet, just a few years later, this visionary economist - the man who changed the world - would be dead. Branded as a traitor to his country. Accused of being the worst thing an American could be accused of - a Soviet Spy.

In Series 2 of Invisible Hands: The American Century, David Dimbleby tells the story of how, in the middle of the 20th century, 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 center of the past 80 years of world politics. And yet now, it is under threat.

So how did we get here? How did America become the leader of the free world and why did it go wrong? It’s a story shaped by people. People you may not know.

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?

A Samizdat production for BBC Radio 4