Rise and Fall of the British Empire - Hardcover

Lawrence James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1856055272 ISBN 13: 9781856055277

Publisher: TIME WARNER BOOKS UK, 1999

Synopsis

Shipped from UK, please allow 10 to 21 business days for arrival. Very Good, A fine copy in illustrated boards with matching illustrated dust-jacket. DJ is in a clear protective wrapper. Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout. A very nice copy. ****Large heavy book which will incur extra postage charges outside the UK*****

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence James was born in Bath and was educated at the University of York and Merton College, Oxford. After a distinguished teaching career he has emerged as one of the outstanding narrative historians of his generation.

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: TIME WARNER BOOKS UK
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1856055272
• ISBN 13: 9781856055277
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352