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More About This Textbook
Overview
Great Britain's geopolitical role has undergone many changes over the last four centuries. Once a maritime superpower and ruler of half the world, Britain now occupies an isolated position as an economically fragile island often at odds with her European neighbors.
Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive, and insighful history of the British Empire. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.
An extraordinarily thorough and brilliantly researched study of the British imperial experience, this comprehensive, perceptive, and insightful book spans the years from 1600 to the present day, chronicling the failures and achievements of the crown in a scholarly yet highly readable fashion. "Well-balanced and thoughtful."--The Times London. of photos.
Editorial Reviews
From the Publisher
"This is a stylish, intelligent and readable book." -The New York Times Book Review"A reliable, well-balanced and well-written account that should enlighen and entertain lay readers who wish to learn more about an empire that in its high noon was more extensive, more populous, and arguably more influential that that of Rome." —The Washington Post Book World
"There is not a dull page in thi book." —The Washington Times
"A sprawling and complex subject handled with admirable style and selectivity." —A.N. Wilson, author of Eminent Victories and Jesus: A Life
"An excellent work of popular history...fluid, accessible and personalized." —Booklist
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
James, a British historian whose previous books have dealt chiefly with military matters, writes engagingly about the British Empire from the time of Sir Walter Raleigh at the beginning of the 17th century to Nelson Mandela at the end of the 20th. The struggle that drove France out of Canada, he says, was ``Britain's first large-scale imperial war of conquest,'' and it set the pattern for future colonial wars from the American Revolution through the Napoleonic, Crimean, Boer, Afghan and Opium wars to WWI and the beginning of the end of the empire in India, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa. WWII finished the job. Except for the travels of Captain James Cook, tales of exploration play almost no part in this account. It is, instead, a history of how a fairly simple international mercantile enterprise-in which white dominions were definitely regarded differently from black ones-changed itself and the face of the world. James peppers his account with illuminating and entertaining excerpts from period songs and popular literature. His conclusion: few empires have given their subjects so much of the intellectual wherewithal to overthrow their rulers. A sprawling and complex subject handled with admirable style and selectivity. Illustrations. (Jan.)Booknews
A sweeping survey of England's imperial experience from 1600 to the present, with attention given to the greed and arrogance of the Empire and its achievements. Illustrated with fine b&w photographs. First published in Great Britain in 1994 by Little, Brown and Company. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Product Details
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Meet the Author
Lawrence James studied history and English at York University and subsequently took a research degree at Merton College, Oxford. Following a career as a teacher, he became a full-time writer in 1985. He is the author of seven critically acclaimed works of nonfiction. He lives in St. Andrews, Scotland with his wife who is the headmistress of St. Leonard's School, and his two sons.
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