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Summary:
A sweeping, brilliantly vivid history of the sudden end of the British Empire and the moment when America became a world superpower—published on the sixtieth anniversary of Britain’s withdrawal from Palestine. “I have not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.” Winston Churchill’s famous statement in November 1942, just as the tide of the Second World War was beginning to turn, pugnaciously affirmed his loyalty to the worldwide institution that he had served for most of his life. Britain fought and sacrificed on a global scale to defeat Hitler and his allies—and won. Yet less than five years after Churchill’s defiant speech, the British Empire effectively ended with Indian independence in August 1947 and the end of the British Mandate in Palestine in May 1948. As the sun set on Britain’s empire, the age of America as world superpower dawned. How did this rapid change of fortune come about? Peter Clarke’s book is the first to analyze the abrupt transition from Rule Britannia to Pax Americana. His swift-paced narrative makes superb use of letters and diaries to provide vivid portraits of the figures around whom history pivoted: Churchill, Gandhi, Roosevelt, Stalin, Truman, and a host of lesser-known figures through whom Clarke brilliantly shows the human dimension of epochal events. Clarke traces the intimate and conflicted nature of the “special relationship,” showing how Roosevelt and his successors were determined that Britain must be sustained both during the war and after, but that the British Empire must not; and reveals how the tension between Allied war aims, suppressed while the fighting was going on, became rapidly apparent when it ended. The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire is a captivating work of popular history that shows how the events that followed the war reshaped the world as profoundly as the conflict itself.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
A Nasty Surprise for the British
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The Last 1000 Days of the Empire covers a tumultuous and painful period. This topic is intriguing because Clarke starts out to show how the British Public were cruelly deceived. They weren't deceived in the ordinary sense. No one pulled a trick on them. Their leaders didn't exactly lie to the Public but the leaders knew that their Public were thinking flawed visions about what the end of the WW would bring to them. The "man in the street" thought that he, the British nation and Empire, had won the war, alongside their allies the Americans and the Russians. To the man in the street, winning the war signified "bright future on sunny uplands," the end of V2 missiles, an end to innocent suffering and no more wartime rationing. At the end of the War the British promptly elected a Labor government who aimed for Socialism.
Instead of socialism the British got austerity, poverty, and the Empire collapsed. More importantly, the evil Americans insisted on quitting Lend Lease abruptly and they wanted to get paid back for their contributions to the British. The British did not see this coming. These unexpected circumstances make for a good tragedy. Moreover, many of Clarke's topics resonate in today's headlines; Palestine, Zimbabwe, Kashmir, etc. The topics are fascinating. Rather, my misgivings flow from the way Clarke has told the story.
First, a reader ought to bring a reasonable understanding of World War 2 to this book. Clarke assumes that readers already know basic facts about the course of the WW, the objectives of the nations involved, the big battles, the big issues etc. Clarke's discussion of various diplomatic situations, meetings, Yalta, Potsdam, and so forth is pitched at a sophisticated audience, not a general audience. I say this because I have been reading about the War, the British, and the Generals for many decades and I often had trouble placing this material into a proper context. Second, perhaps a corollary of the first caveat, readers better know something about the British, their history, the British Empire, the Crown colonies, the Commonwealth, Dominions, Zionism, India v Pakistan, etc. If you don't know these things from your previous reading, or from your personal experience (if you are an old relic like me) then you will have a difficult time. For example, How many readers are going to know that Canada did not draft soldiers because of resistance in (French) Quebec? How many readers know why Australia complained about the use of their troops in Italy? Why was Churchill fixated on North Africa, Greece and the Balkans? Who and what was "Mass Observation?" What's the difference between a Crown Colony, versus a dominion, versus a "plain vanilla" colony, versus a protectorate? Clarke writes as if you are an "insider" who has this broad background understanding.
Even an "insider" could ask for a different structure for the material. I wanted to see much more information about the Empires' financial situation, because Clarke claims that the Empire was largely sunk by its bad finances. For instance, Clarke ought to present background discussions about Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Palestine and the other major players within the Empire. How did these countries view their own status within the Empire? How much independence did they have? How much independence did they want? What did they expect to happen at the War's finish? What were the various dependencies worth in terms of trade and investment?
How did the British make their money before the war? What were their financial connections to each of the Dominions and the colonies? How much did they borrow and where did they borrow it? What about their trade balance and their foreign exchange balances? Most importantly, it's not clear at the finish of the book whether the Americans really brought about the financial collapse, or to what extent. It seems to me that the Empire could have restored its export markets. If not, why not? What about the Marshall Plan? Didn't the Americans eventually give up their claims under Lend Lease. The British never really paid their bill for Lend lease....or did they? So, for those reasons I do not recommend this book to a general audience who simply want to learn what happened and why during the Last 1000 days of the British empire. Instead I see this book as required reading for experts in diplomatic history, who want to know what some of the principal agents wrote about their motives, their goals, and so forth.
End of an Empire
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The Indian sub-continent and Palestine were particularly effected by the decline of the British Empire during the second World War. Peter Clarke's detailed history does not point to solutions but provides background: ". . . these are problems which we can understand better if we know a bit more history."
This is a book for those seeking an in-depth explanation of the political and diplomatic processes that led to the post-war situation. It describes the relationships among the allied leadership and their successors and the thinking that shaped the world in the second half of the last century.
First-Rate Treatment of "Last Days"
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I have read several histories of this period, all purporting to be the definitive account of the events which conspired to occasion the dissolution of the British Empire. This is the best, both in terms of the relatively short, but entirely adequate, time period the author selects for discussion, and for his obvious but never intrusive mastery of both his subject matter and the English language. I would single out his analysis of the initially nation-saving, but ultimately calamitous, innovation of Lend-Lease as by far the most insightful and comprehensive I have ever read. And speaking of reading, I tend toward speed, but this is a "rich" book which makes the reader want to slow down and savor both the writing and the author's observations. Clarke can turn a phrase with the best of them but resists any inclination to be too clever and thus his (often alliterative) witticisms and asides are both surprising and delightfully refreshing. With this book, Clarke joins at least my select group of historians who are also masterful writers, a list which includes Roy Porter, Christopher Hibbert, Niall Ferguson and Simon Schama; he is that good. Indeed, he could have taken 1000 pages to describe the 1000 days and it would have been fine with me. Highly recommended.
A different point of view
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This is a great book that gives a view of WW II from the British point of view. Clarke explains the reasons for the breakup of the British Empire and that in order to win the war the breakup was inevitable.
Dr. Kevin D. Zuber
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Clarke has combed through the diaries of some of the men who "were there" when the British Empire, victorious over the Third Reich in WWII, nevertheless, lost its Empire--notably India but also Palestine. The reader should be familiar with the overall history and the players; (Clarke can be frustrating using multiple names, nicknames and official titles for the players--nearly like reading a Russian novel!) Interesting insight into Churchill, less so for Roosevelt and Truman, even less so for Stalin. The roles of "lesser lights" in forging the post-war world (the associate ministers and cabinet officers) are made, if not brighter, a bit clearer. A good read. Reading this book while Obama was making his "magical mystery tour" of Iraq and Europe brought home the danger his lack of experience--good intentions are not enough--the men who "were there" after WWII show us the absolute necessity of knowing what you are doing in international relations.
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