After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World Book

After the Victorians is a wonderfully entertaining book. Wilson is an excellent writer and is able to bring to life the myriad figures and dramatic events of British history in the first part of the 21st century.

That being said the book does have it's flaws. It's fairly unforgivable that Wilson refers to President Harry Truman as lawyer, when in fact he was the only 20th century President NOT to earn a college degree. Missing this detail could be seen as a minor mistake, but it belies the general lack of research Wilson appears to have undertaken on the other great powers of World War Two. He admits that he basis his entire account of the decision to drop the atomic bomb on just one source, and casually condemns the act as a war crime. While doing this he glosses over the very complex issue of whether an ultimatum was really given to the Japanese, or whether their was any reason to believe that Hirohito would have surrendered under any other circumstances other than the ones he surrendered under

I'm not trying to argue for or against the argument he is making, it just seems that he could have put more research into these areas, and given credence to other viewpoints. That being said this is a book about Britain, and the issue of the atomic bomb is peripheral to his subject.

This is an excellent read and I recommend it to anyone interested in British or 20th century history.