Changing Direction

This volume records the transition from planning against any post-war resurgence of German and Japanese militarism to preparations against a possible threat from the Soviet Union. It charts Foreign Office resistance to consideration of even the possibility of Soviet hostility after the war. Changing Direction is likely to remain the standard work of reference on this period, both for scholars and for the wider public.

"When this book was originally written as an Oxford D.Phil., in the early 1980s, its heavy typescript was regarded as worth its weight in five-pound bills to eager historians of the origins of the Cold War: the lucky ones were tipped off by their supervisors about its existence, and the word about it was spread most confidentially...The second editon was occasioned by the release of more documentary material in the Public Records Office in Kew...Dr. Julian Lewis has drawn upon these to fill in blanks in his earlier careful reconstruction of the discussions and arguments which led British defence planners to develop contingency plans for the event that the United Kingdom's Ally, the Soviet Union, should begin to pose a threat to Britain." - RUSI Journal'an invaluable source for recent British history' - Contemporary Review'Lewis is a meticulous historian who writes clearly and persuasively, and with great authority. This expanded edition of Changing Direction will be essential to any serious research on British security policy during the late 1940s.' - International Affairs