Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire

by Morris, Jan

• ISBN13: 9780156028011
• ISBN10: 0156028018
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

This centerpiece of the trilogy captures the British at the height of their vigor and self-satisfaction, imposing their traditions and tastes, their idealists and rascals, on diverse peoples of the world. Index. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Author Biography

Jan Morris served as an intelligence officer with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, studied at Oxford University, and was a reporter for the Times and the Guardian before launching into a successful career as a novelist, history author, and travel writer. Her other books include Last Letters from Hav, Fifty Years of Europe, Conundrum, Hong Kong, Oxford, The World of Venice, and Farewell the Trumpets.

Table of Contents

The Heirs of Rome: The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, its celebration as a festival of Empire and the explosion of national emotion known as the New Imperialism	p. 19
Palm and Pine: The extent of the British Empire at its climax, and something of its tangled origins	p. 35
Life-Lines: The shipping routes, mails and cables that bound the British possessions together	p. 49
Migrations: How the existence of the British Empire disseminated seed and stock across the world	p. 65
Pioneers: An imperial frontier town: Salisbury, Rhodesia	p. 81
The Profit: The first incentive of imperialism: gain	p. 97
The Glory: Secondary motives: aspects of glory, aggressive, defensive, romantic, evangelist and plain patriotic	p. 113
Caste: Attitudes of the British towards their subject peoples, and reasons for the aloofness that was fundamental to their method	p. 129
Islanders: An island fortress: St Lucia in the Windward Islands	p. 157
Imperial Order: The theoretical structure of Empire, its basic system and its laws	p. 175
Imperial Complexity: Exceptions, anomalies and complications of Empire, from larrikins to Lord Cromer	p. 197
Imperialists in General The run of Empire-builders: their type, look and social aspirations	p. 215
Imperialists in Particular Two explorers, three soldiers, an admiral, two administrators, two politicians, a couple of adventurers and a Queen	p. 231
Proconsuls Simla and the British Government of India	p. 257
Consolations Some pleasures of Empire, sporting and social	p. 281
Challenge and Responses Adventure: living dangerously and dying young	p. 303
Stones of Empire Imperial architecture, sacred and secular, with parks and gardens too	p. 315
Tribal Lays and Images Imperial muses: painting, sculpture, literature, music and intimations of folk-art	p. 333
All by Steam! The British Empire as a development agency: irrigation, roads, railways, mapping, medicine and a specimen millennium	p. 357
Freedmen: A self-governing colony of the Empire: Canada	p. 379
On Guard: The armies of the Crown, British and Indian: their past glories and their present weaknesses	p. 401
At Sea: Splendours and absurdities of the Royal Navy, with glimpses of elan	p. 419
Imperial Effects Spoils and influences of Empire, and what they did for England	p. 433
Overlords The Other Island: Ireland	p. 457
Omens Troubles of Empire and possible threats to its future, with plans for evading them	p. 479
'The Song on Your Bugles Blown' Did the British Empire have an ideology? Religion, Englishness, imperial monarchy, radicalism and Fair Play	p. 497
Finale Queen Victoria writes up her diary, the British survey their position in the world, and we bring the Empire to a close	p. 519
Acknowledgements	p. 525
Index	p. 529
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.