The Squandered Empire: Britain's Economic and Political Rise and Decline - Hardcover

SQUANDERED EMPIRE is a forensic account of how a once-dominant power drifted from industrial strength into fragility - not through inevitability, but through choices. It traces the long arc from imperial leverage to post-imperial complacency, showing how short-term thinking, misread incentives, and policy fashions quietly hollowed out the foundations that once made the state formidable: production, skills, strategic autonomy, and credible long-range planning.This is not a nostalgia piece and it isn't a slogan book. It's a hard, evidence-led narrative written for readers who want to understand mechanisms: how decisions get made; why certain ideas win; how institutions protect failure; and what happens when a country tries to live off reputation while competitors build capacity. The result is a study of decline that treats the reader as intelligent - and refuses to blame "the people" for what was done above their heads.Across 592 pages (7x10 format), Squandered Empire connects economics, geopolitics, and political economy in plain language, backed by extensive sourcing and tight reasoning. It is designed to be read two ways: as a compelling story you can follow chapter by chapter, and as a reference work you can return to when you need the data, the context, and the receipts .Inside you'll find: Why "wealth" can grow on paper while national capability shrinks in real lifeHow institutional incentives reward short horizons and punish long strategyThe hidden costs of deindustrialisation, financialisation, and policy driftWhat rival models did differently - and why outcomes divergedA clear framework for separating spin from structure in modern power politicsIf you're tired of punditry and ready for a disciplined, readable diagnosis of how empires don't just fall - they squander their advantage - this book will meet you at your level.For readers of economic history, geopolitics, public policy, and serious contemporary history - and for anyone who wants more than headlines and heat