The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume V: Historiography

The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. From the founding of colonies in North America and the West Indies in the seventeenth century to the reversion of Hong Kong to China at the end of the twentieth, British imperialism was a catalyst for far-reaching change. The Oxford History of the British Empire as a comprehensive study helps us to understand the end of Empire in relation to its beginning, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as for the rulers, and the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. This fifth and final volume shows how opinions have changed dramatically over the generations about the nature, role, and value of imperialism generally, and the British Empire more specifically. The distinguished team of contributors discuss the many and diverse elements which have influenced writings on the Empire: the pressure of current events, access to primary sources, the creation of relevant university chairs, the rise of nationalism in former colonies, decolonization, and the Cold War. They demonstrate how the study of empire has evolved from a narrow focus on constitutional issues to a wide-ranging enquiry about international relations, the uses of power, and impacts and counterimpacts between settler groups and native peoples. The result is a thought-provoking cultural and intellectual inquiry into how we understand the past, and whether this understanding might affect the way we behave in the future.

See Who's Who

- List of Contributors - 1: Introduction - 2: The First British Empire - 3: The Second British Empire - 4: British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - 5: The American Revolution - 6: Ireland - 7: The British West Indies - 8: Canada and the Empire - 9: Australia and the Empire - 10: Colonization and History in New Zealand - 11: India to 1858 - 12: India, 1858-1937 - 13: India in the 1940s - 14: Ceylon (Sri Lanka) - 15: Pakistan's Emergence - 16: Science, Medicine, and the British Empire - 17: Disease, Diet, and Gender: Late Twentieth-Century Critical Perspective on Empire - 18: Exploration and Empire - 19: Missions and Empire - 20: Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Abolition - 21: The Royal Navy and the British Empire - 22: Imperial Defence - 23: The Empire-Commonwealth and the Two World Wars - 24: Imperial Flotsam? The British in the Pacific Islands - 25: Formal and Informal Empire in East Asia - 26: The British Empire in South-East Asia - 27: Formal and Imformal Empire in the Middle East - 28: Informal Empire in Latin America - 29: Britain and the Scramble for Africa - 30: The British Empire in Tropical Africa: A Review of the Literature to the 1960s - 31: West Africa - 32: East Africa: Metropolitan Action and Local Initiative - 33: Central and Southern Africa - 34: Decolonization and the End of Empire - 35: The Commonwealth - 36: Art and Empire - 37: Architecture in the British Empire - 38: Orients and Occidents: Colonial Discourse Theory and the Historiography of the British Empire - 39: The Shaping of Imperial History - 40: The Future of Imperial History - 41: The Way Forward - Chronology, Index