In 1945 Britain emerged from war triumphant. On July 26, after Labour won a landslide election victory, Churchill resigned, Attlee became Prime Minister and the nation awaited Labour's 'New Jerusalem' in which poverty, unemployment, ill health and poor housing would be abolished. However Correlli Barnett - drawing on material from Cabinet and other Whitehall records - argues that what followed was an era of mistaken strategies and costly consequences.

'An almost irresistible indictment of post-war thinking delivered with Barnett's customary panache and argumentative power.' Martin Kettle, Guardian

'Wonderfully readable... Barnett excels at the exploding of myths.' Toby Buchan, Literary Review