Britain Alone
The Path from Suez to Brexit
by Philip Stephens
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Pub Date Jan 28 2021 | Archive Date Nov 23 2020
Faber and Faber Ltd | Faber & Faber
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Description
A magisterial and profoundly perceptive survey of Britain's post-war role on the global stage, from Suez to Brexit.
'Admirably lucid and measured, as well as studded with sharp pen portraits of the key players, Britain Alone gives us the fullest long-run political and diplomatic narrative yet of Britain's fateful, tragi-comic road to Brexit.'
DAVID KYNASTON
'Philip Stephens has produced that rare thing - an instant classic. Britain Alone is the codebook we need to unravel the six and a half decades between Suez and Brexit, and Stephens is a master of historical codebreaking.'
PETER HENNESSY
How might we celebrate Britain's undoubted strengths while accepting that we have slipped from the top table? How can we act as a great nation while no longer pretending to be a great power? How might we be European and global?
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.
Advance Praise
‘Philip Stephens has produced that rare thing - an instant classic. Britain Alone is the codebook we need to unravel the six and a half decades between Suez and Brexit, and Stephens is a master of historical codebreaking.’ PETER HENNESSY
'Having talked to many of the leading players over decades, Philip Stephens gives us a ringside seat at the drama of how Britain lost, found and lost again its post-imperial international role. Sad and fascinating.' Timothy Garton Ash
'With his profound knowledge of the politics of Westminster, Washington and the European Union, Philip Stephens tells the increasingly depressing story of Britain’s failure to adjust to the loss of empire and to the reality of life as a middle ranking country, with a distinguished culture and history. No-one is likely to write this modern history of decline with more brio and comprehensive insight.' Chris Patten
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780571341771 |
| PRICE | £25.00 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 384 |
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