Until 1970 it would have been premature to attempt a comprehensive and impartial account of British foreign policy from 1905 to 1916, during the secretaryship of Sir Edward Grey. Apart from the difficulty of passing judgement on matters that were still controversial, the confidential archives of the British government for the years after 1905 did not begin to become available until the 1950s. By 1970, however, scholars had thoroughly digested the contents of these voluminous records up to 1916, and a statement of their findings was even overdue. In this volume many of the British historians who have been in the forefront of the research report on their work. They establish the facts about a period which saw fundamental changes in Great Britain's position in the world, and offer assessments of the British government's contribution to such important developments as the evolution of the Anglo-French Entente, Anglo-German rivalry before 1914, the outbreak of the first World War and the origin of the League of Nations.
