Alan Booth has produced a textbook for (British) first-year undergraduates, the traditional structure of which belies its passionate motivation. It was “written in a mood of growing disenchantment with the level of debate on recent British economic performance” (p. ix). Although such a perspective ensures that the writing is often challenging and never dull, it is not clear that it is the best way to write a core textbook. The aim may have been to produce a first-year-level version of Sidney Pollard's classic Development of the British Economy, 1914–1990 (4th ed., London: E. Arnold, 1992), but at times it comes closer in tone to his Wasting of the British Economy (London: Croom Helm, 1982).