Author Description

This new edition is expanded to include the period 1939-1968, the crucial years of the Second World War and its aftermath, up to the end of a separate Foreign Office (FO) in 1968. It describes the changes within the FO brought on by the stresses of war and to its record-keeping systems after 1939, and incorporates information on the records of other war-time and post-war bodies linked to the FO. It examines the FO's role in the reconstruction of Western Europe, the diminution of Britain's international role and the shrinking of the Empire.