THIS SOVEREIGN ISLE: BRITAIN IN AND OUT OF EUROPE

Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. In this succinct book, Tombs argues that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the twentieth century, and because of more extensive and deeper ties outside continental Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to English exceptionalism. Robert Tombs is emeritus professor of French history at Cambridge University.