Product Description

A new edition, previously published in 1981 by Cape, this is the story of the early phases of English and British expansion throughout the world. Calder interweaves English, Irish, Scottish and colonial events into a single pattern. He concerns himself with social and intellectual history, as well as with political and economic developments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #640129 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 559 pages

From the Publisher
Revolutionary Empire is the most ambitous and original attempt for years to tell the story of the early phases of first English, then British expansion in these islands and throughout the world.

About the Author
Angus Calder was formerly Reader in Cultural Studies and Staff Tutor in Arts with the Open University in Scotland and is now a freelance writer. He read English at Cambridge and received his D.Phil from the School of Social Studies at the University of Sussex. He was Convener of the Scottish Poetry Library when it was founded in 1984. He is the author of The People's War and The Myth of the Blitz, and has co-edited Time to Kill: The Soldier's Experience of War in the West 1939 - 1945. He lives in Edinburgh.

Customer Reviews

How it happened..
This is perhaps the best book on history I have ever read. In the 15th Century the wealth of the world was in India, China and the Spice Islands. The peoples of Europe were poor, sick, and uneducated. So how did we end the tale controlling a large chunk of the Globe? And how did Britain become the most powerful nation on Earth?

Important questions. They are addressed with a focus on fact rather than a preconceived narrative. Calder does well to `follow the money' and show the evidence though which he sorts reality from (often familiar) fiction.

This leads to the only weakness of the book - the detail slows the pace, making the result hard work in places. Still, the effort brings many a reward.