James, Lawrence Listings

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1 James, Lawrence The Rise & Fall of British Empire Little Brown and Company 1997 0-349-10667-3 / 9780349106670 Paperback  Paperback in good condition, some creasing to cover and spine.From Publishers WeeklyJames, a British historian whose previous books have dealt chiefly with military matters, writes engagingly about the British Empire from the time ofSir Walter Raleigh at the beginning of the 17th century to Nelson Mandela at the end of the 20th. The struggle that drove France out of Canada, he says, was "Britain's first large-scale imperial war of conquest," and it set the pattern for future colonial wars from the American Revolution through the Napoleonic, Crimean, Boer, Afghan and Opium wars to WWI and the beginningof the end of the empire in India, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa. WWII finished the job. Except for the travels of Captain James Cook, tales ofexploration play almost no part in this account. It is, instead, a historyof how a fairly simple international mercantile enterprise?in which whitedominions were definitely regarded differently from black ones?changed itself and the face of the world. James peppers his account with illuminating and entertaining excerpts from period songs and popular literature. His conclusion: few empires have given their subjects so much of the intellectual wherewithal to overthrow their rulers. A sprawling and complex subject handled with admirable style and selectivity. Illustrations.From BooklistA treatment more than 700 pages in length might seem too long to be thought of as an overview. But considering the time span and plethora of events involved in the topic at hand--the entire history of the British Empire--this excellent work of popular history is indeed an overview, for it sur  Price: 9.00 GBP Add to Shopping Cart