The Alternative [De Luxe edition]

First edition, first printing, in the de luxe edition binding.  (The de luxe edition was limited to 250 copies and each was intended to be signed and numbered. This copy, although in the de luxe binding and bearing the de luxe limitation statement opposite the title page is neither signed or numbered).  314, [vi, index] pp.  Blue leatherette boards with gilt stamped lettering on the spine.  Gilt stamped ‘de luxe edition’ on upper panel.  12mo.  Gently rubbed and rounded on corners and ends of a lightly sunned spine; gilt lettering dull.  Upper text block edge dull darkened.  Some patchy toning on endpapers else internally neat, clean, bright and tight.  

Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet (1896-1980), was a British aristocrat and politician who rose to fame during the 1920s and 1930s when, disillusioned with mainstream politics, he turned to fascism and founded the British Union of Fascists.  Publication of The Alternative in 1947 marked the start of the Union Movement – prior to the Second World War Mosley had argued for concentration trade on the British Empire, but here he envisions a united European trading bloc.