The Rise and Fall of the British Nation

Every so often a book comes out that the entire political class needs to read … Edgerton is Britain’s most exciting and arresting late-modern historian … Thanks to this rich and compelling book, we now have a proper map and compass. – Colin Kidd * New Statesman *

A fierce and dazzling account of 20th-century Britain

– Christopher de Bellaigue * Guardian *
An extraordinary revisionist study of modern Britain … Edgerton’s aim here is nothing short of a radical repositioning of our sense of ourselves as a nation. It’s a startling book, and an unexpected thesis … I’ll be reading [it] over and over, and for years to come.’ – Brian Morton * The Herald *
Forget almost everything you thought you knew about Britain in the 20th century … You will not find a better informed history of this country in the last century. – David Goodhart * Evening Standard *
Stimulating and bracing … He demonstrates that the story the British tell about themselves - and how it is taught in schools and discussed in the public sphere - is bogus. – Iain Martin * The Times *
Unsentimental and rigorous rewriting of British history. … It looks beyond the froth of political debate, takes business seriously and analyses government as much from Whitehall and administration as Westminster and politics. – A. W. Purdue * Times Higher Education *
Beautifully written and can be read with pleasure by the general reader as well as the trained historian – Vernon Bogdanor * Daily Telegraph *
Original, opinionated, scholarly, complex and immensely stimulating … this ambitious and provocative book achieves something remarkable. It provides a striking new perspective on our past, one that future historians may not accept but will be unable to ignore. – Piers Brendon * Literary Review *

A sweepingly, and ambitiously, revisionist account of 20th century British history … full of striking lines … and a very important challenge to much of the existing historiography.

– Duncan Weldon * Progressive Review *

Timely jolt to a deluded ‘Bullshit Britain’. David Edgerton fillets national delusion and historical amnesia … of a country that knows so little of its own history.

– Chris Kissane * Irish Times *