Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., - 950 р.
I have attempted to explain a subject that is admittedly much too large
and complicated to be mastered by anyone in a whole lifetime. It began
to intrigue me forty-five years ago, when I was a student of the
late Professor Egerton and lived in daily contact with other students
drawn to Oxford from all over the empire. It provided the theme of
my first book, which came out as I "went down, " and it has been a
major interest ever since.
The present volume begins with the success of the American Revolution
because this has had an enormous and far-reaching effect on the
evolution of the British Empire. I have sought to present this evolution
as an organic whole, arranged around dominant ideas and forces,
rather than as a collection of unrelated episodes. Personalities, however
interesting in themselves, have been kept to a minimum; and so
also have the details of inteal history of each part of the empire.
As no man can really understand his own country until he looks at
it from the outside, nor understand another country until he somehow
gets inside it, I have tried to combine both views in this account of
what has happened to the British Empire since the thirteen colonies
broke away from it.
I am indebted to so many scholars and friends for help in writing
this book that a list of them would fill another. To all those who have
read portions of the manuscript, I give my special thanks.
I have attempted to explain a subject that is admittedly much too large
and complicated to be mastered by anyone in a whole lifetime. It began
to intrigue me forty-five years ago, when I was a student of the
late Professor Egerton and lived in daily contact with other students
drawn to Oxford from all over the empire. It provided the theme of
my first book, which came out as I "went down, " and it has been a
major interest ever since.
The present volume begins with the success of the American Revolution
because this has had an enormous and far-reaching effect on the
evolution of the British Empire. I have sought to present this evolution
as an organic whole, arranged around dominant ideas and forces,
rather than as a collection of unrelated episodes. Personalities, however
interesting in themselves, have been kept to a minimum; and so
also have the details of inteal history of each part of the empire.
As no man can really understand his own country until he looks at
it from the outside, nor understand another country until he somehow
gets inside it, I have tried to combine both views in this account of
what has happened to the British Empire since the thirteen colonies
broke away from it.
I am indebted to so many scholars and friends for help in writing
this book that a list of them would fill another. To all those who have
read portions of the manuscript, I give my special thanks.