Peter Clarke's book is the first to analyse in detail the losing hand that Britain was dealt in the last year of World War Two, and then to see how that hand was played over the next two years by Churchill's successors. It makes superb use of the copious letters and diaries now available of the major participants and many involved observers, to show how decisions were taken and received. Not least, it analyses dispassionately the role of the USA: how Roosevelt and his successors were determined that Britain must be sustained both during the war and after, but that the British Empire must not. The book thus also describes the short pivotal period when American influence finally took over from the British in world politics.

Author Biography

Peter Clarke was Professor of Modern British History from 1991-2004 at Cambridge University and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge between 2000 and 2003. He is the author of a number of important books, including Hope and Glory: Britain 1900-1990 (1996) (the acclaimed history of Britain in the twentieth century) and A Question of Leadership: Gladstone to Blair (1999), both available in Penguin paperback. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and reviews books regularly for The Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books and the Sunday Times.