The collapse of British power.

Description:

"'The summer of 1940 marked the consummation of an astonishing decline in British fortunes. The British invested their feebleness and isolation with a romantic glamour - they saw themselves as latter-day Spartans, under their own Leonidas, holding the pass for the civlised world. In fact, it was a sorry and contemptible plight for a great power, and it derived neither from bad luck, nor from the failures of others. It had been brought down upon the British by themselves.' Once...the British were thoroughly hard-nosed and aggressive about foreign plicy, but with Wellington's victory at Waterloo, there appeared the first signs of a moral change that was to leave them fatally unprepared to meet the challenges of the determined imperialists guiding other nations in the twentieth century."--Taken from book jacket flap.

subjects: Politics and government,  British National characteristics,  Commonwealth of Nations,  National characteristics, British,  Commonwealth (Organization),  National characteristics, English,  English National characteristics,  Military History,  History, Military,  Foreign relations,  History,  Great britain, politics and government, 20th century,  Great britain, history, 20th century,  Great britain, history, military,  Great britain, foreign relations, 20th century

Places: Commonwealth countries,  Great Britain

Times: 1910-1936,  1936-1945,  20th century,  George V, 1910-1936,  George VI, 1936-1952