Product Description

This guide offers a succinct, easy-to-read introduction to the key issues and historiography of British imperialism from the late 18th century to 2002. Each chapter addresses questions posed by the nature of imperialism in its various military, economic, political and cultural forms, while current controversies - including the impact of Orientalism and post-colonialism - are explained and set in the context of previous debates. The first book in Palgrave Macmillan's new "Histories and Controversies" series, "British Imperialism" enables readers to rapidly assimilate both historiography and key aspects of Britain's imperial power and influence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238073 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
.,."a crisp and thoughtful analysis...his book will be read with profit..."-D. George Boyce, The Journal of Military History

From the Author
This book covers both the history of the British Empire in a concise form, and also the key controversies of the subject. Strictly speaking, we should refer to the 'histories' of the British Empire since there were such a variety of experiences and agendas at work, and there have been no shortage of controversies since its advent - from gendered politics to questions of identity, resistance and collaboration. This book takes each theme as a question and outlines the approach taken by scholars, the breakdown of the problem itself, and then weaves discussion into the whole. As the author, I have tried to pack the empire and its history into 200 or so pages, with chronology, and comprehensive bibliography at the end. The book is designed to appeal to hard-pressed students who need to acquire the key information, but also to experienced scholars who want to contextualise their own research. Clearly a book of this size cannot cover everything, but it does give a flavour of what imperialism was - to its practictioners as well as those on the receiving end - the economics of empire, the way the empire 'worked', the motives and effects of colonisation, coercion and co-operation, post-colonialism and post-colonial studies, race and racism, gender, the world wars, the challenge of nationalism and decolonisation, and the cultural legacy of the empire.
I sincerely hope you will enjoy the book and find it useful in equal measure.

About the Author
ROBERT JOHNSON is Lecturer in History at Richard Huish College, Taunton.