This book talks about a British Prime Minister urging a sceptical public to war in the Middle East, and a project, both desperate and ambitious, to radically change the political landscape of the Arab world. With Tony Blair and George Bush's authority ever more threatened by the blowback from their venture in the Middle East, the Suez Crisis of 1956, which brought down a government and changed the pattern of world politics for ever, has taken on a new relevance. The similarities with contemporary Iraq leap out, as do the differences. Fifty years after Antony Eden's fateful decision to take on the Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser, veteran Guardian journalist Martin Woollacott retraces the legacy of this dramatic foreign policy blunder. Bringing to life the personalities and moods of the post-war scene, he shows how Suez changed the Middle East, Britain, and the world.