PositiveLiterary Review (UK)The task of tracing the course of Powell’s ideas in all their contortions and contradictions, and assessing their impact, is not easy. But Paul Corthorn accomplishes it admirably. His book is clear, coherent and concise. It is based on a vast amount of reading and research. All told, it is a model of scholarship—save in one respect. Seeking the goal of academic objectivity, Corthorn adopts as far as possible ‘a detached, impartial perspective.’ Thus he refuses to discuss whether Powell was right or wrong about the two major causes which he championed and which today have coalesced in Brexit, namely opposition to immigration and to the European Community ... Corthorn does at least argue that what united Powell’s maverick notions was anguish about Britain’s post-imperial decline ... Corthorn’s book preserves a studious neutrality...where a more critical appraisal might have attributed many of Britain’s subsequent ills to the Powell effect.
