Download or read book The Illustrated Rise and Fall of the British Empire written by Lawrence James and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2000-09-12 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spanning four centuries and six continents, James' masterpiece examines the imperial experience and its legacy with tremendous insight and finesse. His original work has now been abridged and illustrated in full color throughout with over 400 meticulously researched photographs, paintings, maps and portraits to create a comprehensive and visually stunning portrait of the era. Great Britain's geopolitical role has undergone many radical 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. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.
Download or read book The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire written by P. J. Marshall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-02 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Up to World War II and beyond, the British ruled over a vast empire. Modern western attitudes towards the imperial past tend either towards nostalgia for British power or revulsion at what seem to be the abuses of that power. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire adopts neither of these approaches. It aims to create historical understanding about the British empire on the assumption that such understanding is important for any informed appreciation of the modern world. Through striking illustration and a text written by leading experts, this book examines the experience of colonialism in North America, India, Africa, Australia, and the Caribbean, as well as the impact of the empire on Britain itself. Emphasis is placed on social and cultural history, including slavery, trade, religion, art, and the movement of ideas. How did the British rule their empire? Who benefited economically from the empire? And who lost?
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the British Empire written by Lawrence James and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 1997-09-15 with total page 978 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A stylish, intelligent and readable book.” —The New York Times Book Review Birthed as a maritime superpower, the ruler of half the globe, Britain today finds itself in a precarious position, often stirring conflict within its European kin. This book provides a nuanced reflection of Britain's tumultuous transition from a globally dominant empire to an economically fragile island. In The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive, and insightful 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.
Download or read book Empire written by Niall Ferguson and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2012-10-25 with total page 681 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niall Ferguson's acclaimed bestseller on the highs and lows of Britain's empire 'A remarkably readable précis of the whole British imperial story - triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses, cruelties and all' Jan Morris Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries, showing how a gang of buccaneers and gold-diggers planted the seed of the biggest empire in all history - and set the world on the road to modernity. 'The most brilliant British historian of his generation ... Ferguson examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers and bankrupts" in the creation of history's largest empire ... he writes with splendid panache ... and a seemingly effortless, debonair wit' Andrew Roberts 'Dazzling ... wonderfully readable' New York Review of Books 'Empire is a pleasure to read and brims with insights and intelligence' Sunday Times
Download or read book The Illustrated Rise Fall of the British Empire written by Lawrence James and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Understanding the British Empire written by Ronald Hyam and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-20 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of key themes in the history of the British Empire by one of the senior figures in the field.
Download or read book The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781 1997 written by Piers Brendon and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-02-09 with total page 850 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD NOTABLE BOOK After the American Revolution, the British Empire appeared to be doomed. Yet it grew to become the greatest, most diverse empire the world had seen. Then, within a generation, the mighty structure collapsed, a rapid demise that left an array of dependencies and a contested legacy: at best a sporting spirit, a legal code and a near-universal language; at worst, failed states and internecine strife. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire covers a vast canvas, which Brendon fills with vivid particulars, from brief lives to telling anecdotes to comic episodes to symbolic moments.
Download or read book Raj written by Lawrence James and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2000-08-12 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the critically acclaimed author of "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" comes an unapologetic revisionist history of British rule in India. James recounts the twists and turns of imperialism and independence with a wealth of new material. 8-page photo insert.
Download or read book The British Empire written by Philippa Levine and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-25 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset is a broad survey of the history of the British Empire from its beginnings to its demise that offers a comprehensive analysis of what life was like under colonial rule, weaving the everyday stories of people living through the experience of colonialism into the bigger picture of empire. The experience of the British Empire was not limited to what happened behind closed doors or on the floor of Parliament. It affected men, women and children across the globe, making a difference to what they ate and what kind of work they did, what languages and lessons they learned in school, and how they were able to live their lives. This new edition expands its coverage and discusses the relationship between Brexit and empire as well as the recent controversies connected to empire that have engulfed Britain: the Windrush scandal, the fight over the Chagos Islands and the Mau Mau lawsuits, bringing it up to date and engaging with key debates that govern the study of empire. Painting a picture of life for all those affected by empire and supported by maps and illustrations, this is the perfect text for all students of imperial history.
Download or read book Captives written by Linda Colley and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this path-breaking book Linda Colley reappraises the rise of the biggest empire in global history. Excavating the lives of some of the multitudes of Britons held captive in the lands their own rulers sought to conquer, Colley also offers an intimate understanding of the peoples and cultures of the Mediterranean, North America, India, and Afghanistan. Here are harrowing, sometimes poignant stories by soldiers and sailors and their womenfolk, by traders and con men and by white as well as black slaves. By exploring these forgotten captives – and their captors – Colley reveals how Britain’s emerging empire was often tentative and subject to profound insecurities and limitations. She evokes how British empire was experienced by the mass of poor whites who created it. She shows how imperial racism coexisted with cross-cultural collaborations, and how the gulf between Protestantism and Islam, which some have viewed as central to this empire, was often smaller than expected. Brilliantly written and richly illustrated, Captives is an invitation to think again about a piece of history too often viewed in the same old way. It is also a powerful contribution to current debates about the meanings, persistence, and drawbacks of empire.
Download or read book The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery written by Paul Kennedy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Kennedy's classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the author This acclaimed book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century and reflects on current American and Chinese ambitions for naval mastery. 'Excellent and stimulating' Correlli Barnett 'The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history' Michael Howard, Sunday Times 'By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject ... a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page' Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review 'The best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us' Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History
Download or read book Empires in the Sun written by Lawrence James and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The one hundred year history of how Europe coerced the African continent into its various empires—and the resulting story of how Africa succeeded in decolonization. In this dramatic (and often tragic) story of an era that radically changed the course of world history, Lawrence James investigates how, within one hundred years, Europeans persuaded and coerced Africa into becoming a subordinate part of the modern world. His narrative is laced with the experiences of participants and onlookers and introduces the men and women who, for better or worse, stamped their wills on Africa. The continent was a magnet for the high-minded, the adventurous, the philanthropic, the unscrupulous. Visionary pro-consuls rubbed shoulders with missionaries, explorers, soldiers, big-game hunters, entrepreneurs, and physicians. Between 1830 and 1945, Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Italy and the United States exported their languages, laws, culture, religions, scientific and technical knowledge and economic systems to Africa. The colonial powers imposed administrations designed to bring stability and peace to a continent that appeared to lack both. The justification for occupation was emancipation from slavery—and the common assumption that late nineteenth-century Europe was the summit of civilization. By 1945 a transformed continent was preparing to take charge of its own affairs, a process of decolonization that took a quick twenty years. This magnificent history also pauses to ask: what did not happen and why?
Download or read book The British Seaborne Empire written by Jeremy Black and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Britain's seaborne tradition is used to throw light on the British themselves, the people with whom they came into contact and the British perception of empire. The oceans and their shores, rather than the mysterious interiors of continents, certainly dominated the English perception of the transoceanic world in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, climaxing in the fascination with the Pacific in the age of Captain Cook, and continuing into the nineteenth century, with Franklin in the Arctic and Ross in the Antarctic. The oceans offered much more than fascination. In England, from the late sixteenth century, maritime conflict and imperial strength were seen as important to national morale and reputation and without it there would have been no empire, or at least not in the form it actually took."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Ghosts of Empire written by Kwasi Kwarteng and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kwasi Kwarteng is the child of parents whose lives were shaped as subjects of the British Empire, first in their native Ghana, then as British immigrants. He brings a unique perspective and impeccable academic credentials to a narrative history of the British Empire, one that avoids sweeping judgmental condemnation and instead sees the Empire for what it was: a series of local fiefdoms administered in varying degrees of competence or brutality by a cast of characters as outsized and eccentric as anything conjured by Gilbert and Sullivan. The truth, as Kwarteng reveals, is that there was no such thing as a model for imperial administration; instead, appointees were schooled in quirky, independent-minded individuality. As a result the Empire was the product not of a grand idea but of often chaotic individual improvisation. The idiosyncrasies of viceroys and soldier-diplomats who ran the colonial enterprise continues to impact the world, from Kashmir to Sudan, Baghdad to Hong Kong.
Download or read book The Lion and the Tiger written by Denis Judd and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2004 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative and lively account of the long and controversial history of the British in India, from the foundation of the East India Company in 1600; to Ghandi's innovative leadership of the increasingly militant Indian Nationalist movement: and finally to Lord Mountbatten's 'swift surgeryof partition', leaving behind the Independent states of India and Pakistan.Against this epic backdrop, Judd explores the consequences of British control for both Indians and the British in India.What was the effect on their daily lives, and on the lives they were effectively controlling? Were the British intent on development or exploitation? Were they a 'civilizing'force? Easy answers are avoided, and difficult questions provoked in this fascinating book.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of a Great Nation written by John Gondeck and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-23 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nations have risen to power through their might and driven by greed they have held many people in bondage. When the workforce was limited, they bought and sold slaves. Slavery is still taking place on the continent of Africa, and no one is there protesting. Politics! It is all about politics and the political game that is being played out in the greatest nation that the world has ever known could be its demise. We will examine the foundation that was laid by those who came from Great Britain and with only thirteen colonies became the ruler of the seas and skies with an army that is unmatched anywhere. Politics! Yes, politics played by men and women desiring power and wealth have brought us the very brink of collapse as they tend to forget who it was that gave so much to so few in the beginning. Thousands upon thousands have given their lives for the freedoms that we have in this land, and yet there are many who do not care, preferring a socialist form of government. But there is still hope for a failing nation.
Download or read book Three Victories and a Defeat written by Brendan Simms and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 836 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower through a series of sensational military strikes. Traditionally, the Royal Navy has been seen as Britain's key weapon, but in Three Victories and a Defeat Brendan Simms argues that Britain's true strength lay with the German aristocrats who ruled it at the time. The House of Hanover superbly managed a complex series of European alliances that enabled Britain to keep the continental balance of power in check while dramatically expanding her own empire. These alliances sustained the nation through the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years' War. But in 1776, Britain lost the American continent by alienating her European allies. An extraordinary reinterpretation of British and American history, Three Victories and a Defeat is a masterwork by a rising star of the historical profession.
