The Audit of War: The Illusion & Reality of Britain as a Great Nation (1986) By Correlli Barnett
 
In The Audit of War, Correlli Barnett places Britain's decline since the Second World War in a startling new perspective. He shows that Britain's wartime industrial performance, far from marking a supreme achievement of national genius and effort, was in reality characterised by all the classic symptoms of the 'British disease'--incompetent management, obstructive trade unions, restrictive practices, wildcat strikes, old-fashioned plant, chronic shortages of skilled personnel, and appalling weaknesses in the newest technologies.
 
Correlli Barnett described his Audit or War as an 'operational study' to 'uncover the causes of Britain's protracted decline as an industrial country since the Second World War.' First published in 1986, the book swiftly became one of the most controversial and influential historical works of its time.'[The Audit of War] argued that British industry during the Second World War was scandalously inefficient, a situation Barnett blamed on an establishment more concerned with welfare than with industry, technology or the capacity of the nation to fight a war. Alan Clark records approvingly that Mrs Thatcher herself read it.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
359 pages
In Good Condition- a slight tear on front cover