Decolonisation and the British Empire, 1775-1997

by Boyce, David George; Boyce, George D.

• ISBN13: 9780333621035
• ISBN10: 0333621034
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan

Summary

This book combines an analysis of the ideas and policies that governed the British experience of decolonisation. It shows how the British - or perhaps more correctly the English - political tradition, with its emphasis on experience over abstract theory, was integral to the way in which the empire was regarded as being transformed rather than lost. This was a significant aspect of the relatively painless British loss of empire. The author places the process of decolonisation in its wider context, tracing the twentieth-century domestic and international conditions that hastened decolonisation and, through a close analysis of not only the policy choices but the language of British imperialism, the book throws new light on the British way of managing both the expansion and contraction of empire.

Author Biography

D. George Boyce is Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Wales, Swansea.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
A Note on the Text
Introduction: Experience and Empire	p. 1
The Expansion of England	p. 5
North America, 1775-1850: Lessons from History?	p. 21
Rationalism and Empire, 1850-1914	p. 44
Pillars of Empire: Ireland and India, 1914-49	p. 70
The Changing World of Empire, 1939-59	p. 108
The Concept of Empire from Attlee to Churchill, 1945-55	p. 131
Pillars of Empire: The Middle East	p. 150
The Concept of Empire from Eden to Wilson, 1955-70	p. 177
Pillars of Empire: Africa	p. 195
Empire, Race and Citizenship	p. 234
Epilogue: The Contraction of England	p. 256
Conclusion: Colonisation and Decolonisation - A Perspective	p. 267
Notes	p. 271
Select Bibliography	p. 300
Index	p. 308
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