Product Description

The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. From the founding of colonies in North America and the West Indies in the seventeenth century to the reversion of Hong Kong to China at the end of the twentieth, British imperialism was a catalyst for far-reaching change. The Oxford History of the British Empire as a comprehensive study allows us to understand the end of Empire in relation to its beginnings, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. Volume IV considers many aspects of the 'imperial experience' in the final years of the British Empire, culminating in the mid-century's rapid processes of decolonization. It seeks to understand the men who managed the empire, their priorities and vision, and the mechanisms of control and connection which held the empire together. There are chapters on imperial centres, on the geographical 'periphery' of empire, and on all its connecting mechanisms, including institutions and the flow of people, money, goods, and services. The volume also explores the experience of 'imperial subjects' - in terms of culture, politics, and economics; an experience which culminated in the growth of vibrant, often new, national identities and movements and, ultimately, new nation-states. It concludes with the processes of decolonization which reshaped the political map of the late twentieth-century world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159134 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 800 pages

David Gilmour, FT Weekend 19/2/00
"impressive ... the overall achievement is undeniably impressive. Under the magisterial guidance of Louis ... a vast array of historians has produced a solid monument of contemporary scholarship."

Review
Impressive ... a neat balance of thematic and area-specific chapters, all of which are exceptionally well written ... will serve as a vital work of reference for any library concerned with the history of the empire. (Nicholas J. White, The Economic Hist. Rev., Vol.LIII, No.4, Nov.2000. )

impressive ... the overall achievement is undeniably impressive. Under the magisterial guidance of Louis ... a vast array of historians has produced a solid monument of contemporary scholarship. (David Gilmour, FT Weekend 19/2/00 )

this chapter [The Nineteenth Century] is infinitely more enlightening then anything to be found in the Cambridge Volumes. (Bernard Porter, TLS )

These final three volumes should be compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in the subject (Bernard Porter, TLS )

Bernard Porter, TLS
"These final three volumes should be compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in the subject"

Customer Reviews

Cutting and Running
The story of the dismantlement of the Empire is usually told piece-meal and selectively, focussing on the more dramatic areas: Ireland, India, Palestine, Suez. But it is a subject that benefits from being treated as a whole, because there is a certain unity to it, as this excellent collection (for me, the best of the series) points out.

It was clear to successive British governments after World War 1 and its aftermaths in Ireland and Amritsar that there were neither the funds available, nor the stomach to police any part of the Empire in the face of serious civil disobedience, so that policy between the wars was to try to paper over such uncomfortable facts. The failure to construct the planned Singapore naval base and create a Pacific fleet meant that such inadequacies were made evident when Japan launched its assaults.

The task after 1945 therefore was to try to portray the withdrawal from Empire as a planned process. Mostly there weren't any plans, and even those that were made - for federations in the Caribbean, East Africa and Rhodesia and Nyasaland for intance - came to nothing.

There is a success story. Given its limited objectives, the Commonwealth functions extremely well, with countries with no connection to the Empire queuing for admission. But the current structure of the Commonwealth wasn't planned either. Fitting really.