The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Laurence James

Hardcover.

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE covers the history of British expansion overseas from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Narrative and analysis are interwoven with revealing eyewitness quotation to provide keen insight into the minds of those involved in conquering, settling and ruling the greatest Empire the world has seen. Throughout, there are consistant themes; the search for profit and the moral misgivings it generated; domestic developments which made imperial expansion desirable; and the sense of national and personal destiny felt by the empire-builders. Spanning four centuries and six continents, James' magnificent survey examines the imperial experience and its legacy with tremendous verve. Informed, comprehensive and perceptive, it is the essential summary of the era. 'James' epic is not only a first-rate narrative, but also a penetrating portrait of the British...Having largely, if often inadvertently, selfishly or ham-fistedly, engineered the world we live in, we need the courage now to face up to our record as coolly and intelligently as Lawrence James has done' - John Spurling, TLS

From Publishers 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. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Booklist

A treatment more than 700 pages in length might seem too long to be thought of as an overview. But considering the time span and plethora of events involved in the topic at hand--the entire history of the British Empire--this excellent work of popular history is indeed an overview, for it surveys the major periods and events in Britain's rise and decline as a global power without attempting to be the definitive study of any one of those periods or events. On the other hand, this is not a textbook, being far more fluid, accessible, and personalized to be that. James' focus rests primarily on individuals--those who built the British Empire, those who maintained it, and those who, when it came time, eased it out of existence. Expanding from there, he weighs how "the British character was changed by the empire," from engendering in Britons "a sense of superiority" to encouraging their fast hold on democratic principles in the face of ruling other people, a dichotomy that ironically taught their colonies how to be self-governing, in other words, "equipped their subjects with the intellectual wherewithal to overthrow their rulers." A worthy addition to any history collection. Brad Hooper --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.