Understanding the British Empire

by Ronald Hyam

• ISBN13: 9780521132909
• ISBN10: 0521132908
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Understanding the British Empire draws on a lifetime's research and reflection on the history of the British Empire by one of the senior figures in the field. Essays cover six key themes: the geopolitical and economic dynamics of empire, religion and ethics, imperial bureaucracy, the contribution of political leaders, the significance of sexuality, and the shaping of imperial historiography. A major new introductory chapter draws together the wider framework of Dr Hyam's studies and several new chapters focus on lesser known figures. Other chapters are revised versions of earlier papers, reflecting some of the debates and controversies raised by the author's work, including the issue of sexual exploitation, the European intrusion into Africa, including the African response to missionaries, trusteeship, and Winston Churchill's imperial attitudes. Combining traditional archival research with newer forms of cultural exploration, this is an unusually wide-ranging approach to key aspects of empire.

Author Biography

Ronald Hyam is Emeritus Reader in British Imperial History at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow and former President of Magdalene College. He is the author of several books on the British empire, including most recently Britain's Declining Empire: the Road to Decolonisation 1918-1968(2006) and, with Peter Henshaw, The Lion and the Springbok: Britain and South Africa since the Boer War (2003).

Table of Contents

List of plates	p. ix
List of figures	p. x
List of maps	p. xi
List of tables	p. xii
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xix
List of abbreviations	p. xx
Introduction: perspectives, policies, and people	p. 1
Dynamics: geopolitics and economics	p. 69
The primacy of geopolitics: the dynamics of British imperial policy, 1763-1963	p. 71
The partition of Africa: geopolitical and internal perspectives	p. 98
The empire in a comparative global context, 1815-1914	p. 117
The myth of 'gentlemanly capitalism'	p. 133
Ethics and religion	p. 153
Peter Peckard, 'universal benevolence', and the abolition of the slave trade	p. 155
The view from below: the African response to missionaries	p. 178
Bureaucracy and policy-making	p. 209
Bureaucracy and trusteeship in the colonial empire	p. 211
Africa and the Labour government, 1945-1951	p. 238
John Bennett and the end of empire	p. 268
Great men	p. 297
Winston Churchill's first years in ministerial office, 1905-1911	p. 299
Churchill and the colonial empire	p. 319
Smuts in context: Britain and South Africa	p. 342
Sexuality	p. 361
Empire and sexual opportunity	p. 363
Penis envy and 'penile othering' in the colonies and America	p. 401
Concubinage and the Colonial Service: Silberrad and the Crewe Circular, 1909	p. 417
Greek love in British India: Captain Searight's manuscript	p. 440
Imperial historians	p. 471
Imperial and Commonwealth history at Cambridge, 1881-1981: founding fathers and pioneer research students	p. 473
The Oxford and Cambridge imperial history professoriate, 1919-1981: Robinson and Gallagher and their predecessors	p. 509
Published writings of RH on imperial history	p. 538
Index	p. 541
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