To a controversial premiership, which ended in May in 2007, Mr Blair has added a still more controversial post-premiership.
We need to examine both, the premiership and what followed it, if we are to understand why he has become the most reviled former prime minister since 1945.
Mr Blair succeeded to the leadership in July 1994 and set about "modernising" the Labour Party so it embraced rather than rejected capitalism, and sought to rule in the interests of the whole country, not just the working class and trade unions.
Coming to power after four election defeats for Labour in a row, 1979, 1983, 1987, and 1992, Mr Blair's formula proved outstandingly successful.
Reforming agenda
He won the general election in May 1997, with a landslide victory against the discredited Conservative government, won again with a landslide in 2001, and won a third time, albeit it with a smaller majority, in 2005. No Labour leader in history ever won three election victories and lost none.