The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

This history surveys British overseas power from sixteenth-century ventures through the American colonies, the Indian empire, settler dominions, the partition of Africa, and the twentieth-century wars that precede independence movements and withdrawal. Narrative chapters mix policy, trade, and campaigns with testimony from officials, settlers, soldiers, and subject peoples. Recurring tensions include profit, moral unease, and the sense of national mission. The book is a long political and social history of one empire, not a constitutional handbook and not a history of domestic Britain alone.

Bound in blue buckram, blocked with a black, red and gold design by David Eccles. Black slipcase.