Second Hand The Collapse of British Power

A major study of Britain’s decline as a world power in the first half of the twentieth century. Correlli Barnett examines the political, military, economic, industrial and strategic weaknesses that, in his argument, undermined Britain’s ability to sustain its imperial and global role. Moving from the aftermath of the First World War through the inter-war period and into the Second World War, the book challenges more comforting explanations of British decline and offers a forceful reassessment of national policy, leadership and preparedness.

First published in 1972, The Collapse of British Power became the opening volume in Barnett’s wider Pride and Fall sequence. It remains a provocative and influential work for readers interested in British imperial history, the inter-war years, the Second World War, national decline, strategy and twentieth-century political history.