The End is Nigh: British Politics, Power, and the Road to the Second World War Kindle Edition

Till almost the end did not think much of this book, a sort of sub-Cowling obsession with high politics derived almost entirely from the participants’ diaries, but then in the conclusion seems to switch direction & suggest that British strategy was distorted by a kind of higher liberalism but this is in a book aspiring to argue that the only thing that counts in politics is politicians’ squabbles for high office. So the conclusion seems spot on. The political class in the 30s did not think in terms of the careful calculation of British interests and capabilities but rather were in thrall to an idea that they must interfere everywhere driven by a sort of ‘liberal conscience’ [author’s term I wouldn’t put it quite like that myself]. Now that is a useful reflection for today’s international politics but the author has nothing to say about how the ‘liberal conscience’ actually works.

Provides a comprehensive insight into the years leading up to the Second World War