Britain alone : the path from Suez to Brexit / Philip Stephens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephens, Philip, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Great Britain--Foreign relations--1945-.

Great Britain.

International relations.

Great Britain--Politics and government--1945-.

Politics and government.

Diplomatic relations.

Physical Description:

xv, 464 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Faber & Faber, 2021.

Summary:

In 1962 the American statesman Dean Acheson famously charged that Britain had lost an empire and failed to find a new role. Nearly sixty years later the rebuke rings true again. Britain's postwar search for its place in the world has vexed prime ministers and government since the nation's great victory in 1945: the cost of winning the war was giving up the empire. After the humiliation of Anthony Eden's Suez expedition, Britain seemed for a time to have found an answer. Clinging to its self-image as a great island nation, it would serve as America's best friend while acknowledging its geography by signing up to membership of the European Union. Never a comfortable balancing act, for forty years it appeared to work. In 2016 David Cameron called the Brexit referendum and blew it up. Award-winning journalist Philip Stephens paints a fascinating portrait of a nation struggling to reconcile its waning power with past glory. Drawing on decades of personal contact and interviews with senior politicians and diplomats in Britain, the United States and across the capitals of Europe, Britain Alone is a vivid account of a proud nation struggling to admit it is no longer a great power. It is an indispensable guide to how we arrived at the state we are in.

Contents:

Broken dreams

Greeks and Romans

A thousand years of history

A very British bomb

Power and the pound

Missed chances

Cold warrior

The road to Bruges

The bastards

Back to the desert

Fog in the Channel

Alone

Afterword: the search resumes.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 419-425) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

0571341772

9780571341771

OCLC:

1128395526