The second book in "The Pride and the Fall" sequence on British power in the 20th century, this work places Britain's decline since World War II in a new perspective. Based on an analysis of unpublished government records, the text shows that Britain's wartime performance, far from marking a supreme achievement of national genius and effort, was in reality characterized by all the classic symptoms of the "British disease". By the time they had taken down the bunting from the streets after V-E Day and turned from the war to the future, the British, in their dreams and illusions, and in their flinching from reality, had already written the scenario for Britain's post-war descent.