Empire

Description

In this impressively researched and always entertaining book, the esteemed British historian Denis Judd analyzes the imperial experience from the American Revolution to the present day. He examines the ways in which Empire affected both rulers and ruled, and the roles of significant personalities - from Queen Victoria to Nelson Mandela, Cecil Rhodes to Jomo Kenyatta, Joseph Chamberlain to Mahatma Gandhi. What was so special about the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States? Did the maintenance of the Empire artificially prolong Britain's Great Power status, camouflaging economic and national decline? Did it encourage chauvinistic, even racist, attitudes? Were subjects better off under the British than they would have been under their own elites and leaders? What was the difference between exploitation and development? In the end, what does the balance sheet of Empire look like?

First Sentence

THIS BOOK DOES NOT seek to provide a complete and comprehensive narrative account of the British Empire from its early beginnings to its final collapse.

Excerpt

THIS BOOK DOES NOT seek to provide a complete and comprehensive narrative account of the British Empire from its early beginnings to its final collapse.

Description

"The British Empire radically altered the modern world. At its height, it governed over a quarter of the human race, and encompassed more than a fifth of the globe. Now transformed into an entirely voluntary association, the Commonwealth, it survives in a form that would have grieved the great empire-builders, but gratified many of the nationalists, reformers and radicals who are also central to its history." "As well as providing the British people with profits and a sense of international purpose, the Empire afforded them the opportunity to create new lives for themselves through emigration and settlement. It supplied jobs at home and overseas, encouraged national aggrandisement and allowed experiments in social engineering. For those it dominated and controlled, the Empire often represented arbitrary power, gunboat diplomacy, and the disruption of local customs, social structures and government by a distant and sometimes coldly unsympathetic administration. Yet while the Empire rested ultimately upon military force and direct rule, it also pulsated with ideals - ideals of freedom, democracy and even equality." "In this impressively researched and always entertaining book, Denis Judd analyses the British imperial experience from the American Revolution to the present day. He examines the ways in which Empire affected both rulers and ruled, and the roles of significant personalities - from Queen Victoria to Nelson Mandela, Cecil Rhodes to Jomo Kenyatta, Joseph Chamberlain to Mahatma Gandhi. Did the maintenance of the Empire artificially prolong Britain's Great Power status, camouflaging economic and national decline? Did it encourage chauvinistic, even racist, attitudes? Were the ruled better off under the British than they would have been under their own elites and leaders? What was the difference between exploitation and development? What, in the end, does the balance sheet of Empire look like?". "The story of Empire is central to Britain's national mythology and sense of its place in the world, and essential to an understanding of its changing role as we approach the end of the millennium. Denis Judd's fine, magisterial history does full justice to a complex and epic theme."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Empire: the British imperial experience from 1765 to the present / Denis Judd.Fontana Press1997-01-01
• EmpireBasicBooks1997-01-01
• EmpireFontana Press1997-03-17
• EmpirePaperbackFontana Press1997-03-17
• EmpireBasic Books1997-07-01
• EmpireBasic Books1998-07-01