This book gives an account of Britain's rise and fall over the past 200 years, painting a provocative picture of a once great nation reduced to a European statelet. Jeremy Black demonstrates that the Britain we know today and which has shaped our identity has outgrown the industrial and commercial empire which once made Britain great throughout the world. The achievements and innovations of the great inventors and industrialists were appropriate in their time but Britain is searching for a new role and a new place among the leading nations. At present it appears that all we have to look forward to is further integration with Europe, and this, Black argues, would represent a foolish surrender of everything that is significant in our history.