A magisterial and profoundly perceptive survey of Britain's post-war role on the global stage, from Suez to Brexit. 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...