The historiography of modern Britain is dominated by one issue - 'decline'. The usual starting-point for discussion is the fact that Britain's share of the world's manufactured exports has fallen from about 25 per cent before the Great War to around 8 per cent today, although much of this has nothing at all to do with Britain. At their most extreme 'declinists' argue that Britain has been a second or third-rate nation since the 1870s. They maintain that this could have been prevented and indeed that it is not too late now to effect a change in Britain's position. 'Declinism' is in many ways the last refuge of Great Power delusions.

LRB 7 March 1996 | PDF Download