The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume I: The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century (VOL. I) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198205627 ISBN 13: 9780198205623

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Volume I of the Oxford History of the British Empire explores the origins of empire. It shows how and why England, and later Britain, became involved with transoceanic navigation, trade, and settlement during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The chapters, by leading historians, both illustrate the interconnections between developments in Europe and overseas and offer specialist studies on every part of the world that was substantially affected by British colonial activity. As late as 1630, involvement with regions beyond the traditional confines of Europe was still tentative; by 1690 it had

About this title

About the Author:

Nicholas Canny is Professor of History and Academic Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Review:

"An extremely useful volume, and it will be the principal reference work for many years to come."--Journal of American History

"It must be said immediately that its first two volumes get The Oxford History of the British Empire off to a strong start. Both books consist of essays that break new ground and do so with a confidence based on extensive research and with refreshing lucidity and frankness....These two books are likely to shock some of their readers. For example, the sentimentalized and idealized version of American history, which luxuriates in popular works and is more subtly present in much academic history, finds no favor with the contributors to these volumes."--Conor Cruise O'Brien in The New York Review of Books

"Fresh as well as important, interesting as well as judicious, thoughtful as well as scholarly....Throughout, this is an important and thought-provoking volume."--Albion

"The first two volumes of this five-volume history of the British Empire establish a very high standard of scholarship....Recommended for all libraries."--Library Journal

"[Oxford History of the British Empire] provide[s] a huge, richly endowed quarry within which readers can delve with great profit and enjoyment."--The Independent

"Magisterial design and craftmanship in the detail"--Daily Telegraph (London)

"Magnificent...Taken together, these books constitute an extraordinary feat of organization and scholarship, and they provide the authoritative history of the British Empire for our generation, and the essential starting point of the re-writing of that history which will take place in the next generation. Opinions differ about the British Empire; there can be no disagreement about this superb history of it."--David Cannadine in The Times Literary Supplement

"The Oxford History of the British Empire will take many years to be digested. In the meantime, its five volumes will gather little dust on library shelves. Those fortunate enough to have these books in their own library will possess a valuable publication that recommends new approaches and raises new questions about one of the greatest cultural and technological transfers that has taken place in the world during the past half millennium."--The Historian

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0198205627
• ISBN 13: 9780198205623
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 554
• Editor: Canny Nicholas