"He recounts the history of British involvement with Europe over the last 60 years with unique concision and clarity. He searches for the motivations behind the Brexit vote, parsing arguments that it was the inevitable result of structural economic factors, that it stemmed from a misplaced backlash against rising inequality, or that it was just a fluke brought about by political miscalculation and opportunism. Ever the professor, O'Rourke hints that all these views contain some truth." (Andrew Moravcsik)

"Crisp, clear and quietly devastating... It might indeed be questioned whether such a project is worth doing while the outcome is so uncertain. But O'Rourke's book provides a bracing and absorbing answer. As he puts it towards the end, Brexit has already been 'a hugely informative, if costly, civics lesson for the people of Britain, Ireland, and the rest of Europe' and he is superbly well fitted to draw out that lesson for the general reader." (Fintan O'Toole)

"Anyone who has found themselves newly politicised by the convulsions of British politics in general or Brexit in particular will find this a handy primer on the events and undercurrents that led to our present discontent. Anyone who is familiar with that history will find something they knew, but hadn't fully appreciated." (Stephen Bush)