A biography of William Pitt the Elder, the Prime Minister under George III, Pitt led Britain during the Seven Years' War and then became the Earl of Chatham in 1766. The book takes an expansive view of its subject: "For good and for evil, through heroism and through spoliation, with all its vast, far-reaching consequences, industrial, economic, social, and moral—the foundation of the Empire was the work of Chatham."