Historiography of the British Empire
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The historiography of the British Empire refers to the studies, sources, critical methods and interpretations used by scholars to develop a history of the
Historians have approached imperial history from numerous angles over the last century.[2] In recent decades scholars have expanded the range of topics into new areas in social and cultural history, paying special attention to the impact on the natives and their agency in response.[3][4] The cultural turn in historiography has recently emphasised issues of language, religion, gender, and identity. Recent debates have considered the relationship between the "metropole" (Great Britain itself, especially London), and the colonial peripheries. The "British world" historians stress the material, emotional, and financial links among the colonizers across the imperial diaspora. The "new imperial historians", by contrast, are more concerned with the Empire's impact on the metropole, including everyday experiences and images.[5] Phillip Buckner says that by the 1990s few historians continued to portray the Empire as benevolent. The new thinking was that the impact was not so great,[clarification needed] for historians had discovered the many ways which the locals responded to and adapted to Imperial rule. The implication Buckner says is that Imperial history is "therefore less important than was formerly believed".[6]
Historical framework
Historians agree that the Empire was not planned by anyone. The concept of the British Empire is a construct and was never a legal entity, unlike the Roman or other European empires. There was no imperial constitution, no office of emperor, no uniformity of laws. So when it began, when it ended, and what stages it went through is a matter of opinion, not official orders or laws. The dividing line was Britain's shift in the 1763–93 period from emphasis on western to eastern territories following U.S. independence. The London bureaucracy governing the colonies also changed, policies to white settler colonies changed and slavery was phased out.[7]
The beginning of the formation of a colonial Empire has been much studied. Tudor conquest of Ireland began in the 1530s and Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 1650s completed the British colonisation of Ireland. The first major history was The Expansion of England (1883), by Sir John Seeley.[8] It was a bestseller for decades, and was widely admired by the imperialistic faction in British politics, and opposed by the anti-imperialists of the Liberal Party. The book points out how and why Britain gained the colonies, the character of the Empire, and the light in which it should be regarded. It was well written and persuasive. Seeley argued that British rule is in India's best interest. He also warned that India had to be protected and vastly increased the responsibilities and dangers to Britain. The book contains the much-quoted statement that "we seem, as it were, to have conquered half the world in a fit of absence of mind". Expansion of England appeared at an opportune time, and did much to make the British regard the colonies as an expansion of the British state as well as of British nationality, and to confirm to them the value of Britain's empire in the East.[9] In his history of the British Empire, written in 1940, A. P. Newton lamented that Seeley "dealt in the main with the great wars of the eighteenth century and this gave the false impression that the British Empire has been founded largely by war and conquest, an idea that was unfortunately planted firmly in the public mind, not only in Great Britain, but also in foreign countries".[10]
Historians often point out that in the First British Empire (before the 1780s) there was no single imperial vision, but rather a multiplicity of private operations led by different groups of English businessmen or religious groups. Although protected by the Royal Navy, they were not funded or planned by the government.[11] After the American war, says Bruce Collins, British leaders "focused not on any military lessons to be learned, but upon the regulation and expansion of imperial trade and the readjustment of Britain's constitutional relationship with its colonies."[12]
In the Second British Empire, by 1815 historians identify four distinct elements in the colonies.[11] The most politically developed colonies were the self-governing colonies in the Caribbean and those that later formed Canada and Australia. India was in a category by itself, and its immense size and distance required control of the routes to it, and in turn permitted British naval dominance from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea. The third group was a mixed bag of smaller territories, including isolated ports used as way stations to India, and emerging trade entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore, along with a few isolated ports in Africa. The fourth kind of empire was the "informal empire," that is financial dominance exercised through investments, as in Latin America, and including the complex situation in Egypt (it was owned theoretically by the Ottoman Empire, but ruled by Britain).[13] Darwin argues the British Empire was distinguished by the adaptability of its builders: "The hallmark of British imperialism was its extraordinary versatility in method, outlook and object." The British tried to avoid military action in favour of reliance on networks of local elites and businessmen who voluntarily collaborated and in turn gained authority (and military protection) from British recognition.[14]
Historians[who?] argue that Britain built an informal economic empire through control of trade and finance in Latin America after the independence of Spanish and Portuguese colonies about 1820.[15] By the 1840s, Britain had adopted a highly successful policy of free trade that gave it dominance in the trade of much of the world.[16] After losing its first Empire to the Americans, Britain then turned its attention towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. Following the defeat of Napoleonic France in 1815, Britain enjoyed a century of almost unchallenged dominance and expanded its imperial holdings around the globe. Increasing degrees of internal autonomy were granted to its white settler colonies in the 20th century.[17]
A resurgence came in the late 19th century, with the Scramble for Africa and major additions in Asia and the Middle East. Leadership in British imperialism was expressed by Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Rosebery, and implemented in Africa by Cecil Rhodes. Other influential spokesmen included Lord Cromer, Lord Curzon, General Kitchner, Lord Milner, and the writer Rudyard Kipling. They all were influenced by Seeley's Expansion of England.[18] The British Empire was the largest Empire that the world has ever seen both in terms of landmass and population. Its power, both military and economic, remained unmatched in 1900. In 1876 Disraeli overcame vehement Liberal opposition and obtained for Queen Victoria the title of "Empress of India" (she was not "Empress of the British Empire.")[19]
British historians focused on the diplomatic, military and administrative aspects of the Empire before the 1960s. They saw a benevolent enterprise. Younger generations branched off into a variety of social, economic and cultural themes, and took a much more critical stance. Representative of the old tradition was the Cambridge History of India, a large-scale project published in five volumes between 1922 and 1937 by Cambridge University Press. Some volumes were also part of the simultaneous multivolume The Cambridge History of the British Empire. Production of both works was delayed by the First World War and the ill health of contributors; the India volume II had to be abandoned. Reviewers complained the research methods were too old-fashioned; one critic said it was "history as it was understood by our grandfathers".[20]
Idea of Empire
David Armitage provided an influential[21] study of the emergence of a British imperial ideology from the time of Henry VIII to that of Robert Walpole in the 1720s and 1730s.[22] Using a close reading of English, Scottish and Irish authors from Sir Thomas Smith (1513–77) to David Hume (1711–1776), Armitage argues that the imperial ideology was both a critical agent in the formation of a British state from three kingdoms and an essential bond between the state and the transatlantic colonies. Armitage thus links the concerns of the "New British History" with that of the Atlantic history. Before 1700, Armitage finds that contested English and Scottish versions of state and empire delayed the emergence of a unitary imperial ideology. However political economists Nicholas Barbon and Charles Davenant in the late 17th century emphasized the significance of commerce, especially mercantilism or commerce that was closed to outsiders, to the success of the state. They argued that "trade depended on liberty, and that liberty could therefore be the foundation of empire".[23] To overcome competing versions of "empires of the seas" within Britain, Parliament undertook the regulation of the Irish economy, the Acts of Union 1707 and the formation of a unitary and organic "British" empire of the sea. Walpole's opponents in the 1730s in the "country party" and in the American colonies developed an alternative vision of empire that would be "Protestant, commercial, maritime and free".[24] Walpole did not ensure the promised "liberty" to the colonies because he was intent on subordinating all colonial economic activity to the mercantilist advantages of the metropolis. Anti-imperial critiques emerged from Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, presaging the republicanism that swept the American colonies in the 1770s and led to the creation of a rival power.
Economic policy: Mercantilism
Historians led by
High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, are an almost universal feature of mercantilist policy. Other policies have included:[29]
- Building overseas colonies;
- Forbidding colonies to trade with other nations;
- Monopolizing markets with staple ports;
- Banning the export of gold and silver, even for payments;
- Forbidding trade to be carried in foreign ships;
- Export subsidies;
- Promoting manufacturing with research or direct subsidies;
- Limiting wages;
- Maximizing the use of domestic resources;
- Restricting domestic consumption with non-tariff barriers to trade.
The term "mercantile system" was used by its foremost critic Adam Smith.[30]
Mercantilism in its simplest form was bullionism which focused on accumulating gold and silver through clever trades (leaver the trading partner with less of his gold and silver). Mercantilist writers emphasized the circulation of money and rejected hoarding. Their emphasis on monetary metals accords with current ideas regarding the money supply, such as the stimulative effect of a growing money supply. In England, mercantilism reached its peak during the Long Parliament government (1640–1660). Mercantilist policies were also embraced throughout much of the Tudor and Stuart periods, with Robert Walpole being another major proponent. In Britain, government control over the domestic economy was far less extensive than on the Continent, limited by common law and the steadily increasing power of Parliament.[31] Government-controlled monopolies were common, especially before the English Civil War, but were often controversial.[32]
With respect to its colonies, British mercantilism meant that the government and the merchants became partners with the goal of increasing political power and private wealth, to the exclusion of other empires. The government protected its merchants – and kept others out – by trade barriers, regulations, and subsidies to domestic industries in order to maximize exports from and minimize imports to the realm. The government used the Royal Navy to protect the colonies and to fight smuggling – which became a favourite American technique in the 18th century to circumvent the restrictions on trading with the French, Spanish or Dutch.[33] The goal of mercantilism was to run trade surpluses, so that gold and silver would pour into London. The government took its share through duties and taxes, with the remainder going to merchants in Britain. The colonies were captive markets for British industry, and the goal was to enrich the mother country (not the colonists).[34]
British mercantilist writers were themselves divided on whether domestic controls were necessary. British mercantilism thus mainly took the form of efforts to control trade. Much of the enforcement against smuggling was handled by the Royal Navy, argued Neil Stout.
Mercantilism taught that trade was a zero-sum game with one country's gain equivalent to a loss sustained by the trading partner. Whatever the theoretical weaknesses exposed by economists after Adam Smith, it was under mercantilist policies before the 1840s that Britain became the world's dominant trader, and the global
Scholars agree that Britain gradually dropped mercantilism after 1815. Free trade, with no tariffs and few restrictions, was the prevailing doctrine from the 1840s to the 1930s.[39]
Defending empire and "pseudo-empire"
John Darwin has explored the way historians have explained the large role of the Royal Navy and the much smaller role of the British Army in the history of the empire. For the 20th century, he explores what he calls a "pseudo-empire," oil producers in the Middle East. The strategic goal of protecting the Suez Canal was a high priority from the 1880s to 1956 and, by then, had expanded to the oil regions. Darwin argues that defence strategy posed issues of how to reconcile the needs of domestic politics with the preservation of a global Empire.[40] Darwin argues that a main function of the British defence system, especially the Royal Navy, was defence of the overseas empire (in addition of course to defence of the homeland).[41] The army, usually in co-operation with local forces, suppressed internal revolts, losing only the American War of Independence (1775–83).[42] Armitage considers the following to be the British creed:
- Protestantism, oceanic commerce and mastery of the seas provided bastions to protect the freedom of inhabitants of the British Empire. That freedom found its institutional expression in Parliament, the law, property, and rights, all of which were exported throughout the British Atlantic world. Such freedom also allowed the British, uniquely, to combine the classically incompatible ideals of liberty and empire.[43]
Lizzie Collingham (2017) stresses the role of expanding the food supply in the building, financing and defending the trade aspect of empire-building.[44]
Thirteen American Colonies and Revolution
The first British Empire centered on the 13 American Colonies, which attracted large numbers of settlers from across Britain. In the 1900s - 1930s period the "Imperial School," including
Regarding Columbia University historian Herbert L. Osgood (1855–1918), biographer Gwenda Morgan concludes:
- Osgood brought a new sophistication to the study of colonial relations posing the question from an institutional perspective, of how the Atlantic was bridged. He was the first American historian to recognize the complexity of imperial structures, the experimental character of the empire, and the contradictions between theory and practice that gave rise, on both sides of the Atlantic, to inconsistencies and misunderstandings ... It was American factors rather than imperial influences that in his view shaped the development of the colonies. Osgood's work still has value for professional historians interested in the nature of the colonies' place in the early British Empire, and their internal political development.[48]
Much of the historiography concerns the reasons the Americans revolted in the 1770s and successfully broke away.[49] The "Patriots", an insulting term used by the British that was proudly adopted by the Americans, stressed the constitutional rights of Englishmen, especially "No taxation without representation." Historians since the 1960s have emphasized that the Patriot constitutional argument was made possible by the emergence of a sense of American nationalism that united all 13 colonies. In turn, that nationalism was Rooted in a Republican value system that demanded consent of the governed and opposed aristocratic control.[50] In Britain itself, republicanism was a fringe view since it challenged the aristocratic control of the British political system. There were (almost) no aristocrats or nobles in the 13 colonies, and instead, the colonial political system was based on the winners of free elections, which were open to the majority of white men. In the analysis of the coming of the Revolution, historians in recent decades have mostly used one of three approaches.[51]
The Atlantic history view places the American story in a broader context, including revolutions in France and Haiti. It tends to reintegrate the historiographies of the American Revolution and the British Empire.[52][53][54]
The "
The ideological approach that centres on republicanism in the United States.[55] Republicanism dictated there would be no royalty, aristocracy or national church but allowed for continuation of the British common law, which American lawyers and jurists understood and approved and used in their everyday practice. Historians have examined how the rising American legal profession adapted British common law to incorporate republicanism by selective revision of legal customs and by introducing more choice for courts.[56][57]
First British Empire and Second British Empire
The concept of a first and second British Empire was developed by historians in the early 20th century,[58][59] Timothy H. Parsons argued in 2014, "there were several British empires that ended at different times and for different reasons".[60] He focused on the Second.
Ashley Jackson argued in 2013 that historians have even extended to a third and fourth empire:
The first British Empire was largely destroyed by the loss of the American colonies, followed by a 'swing to the east' and the foundation of a second British Empire based on commercial and territorial expansion in South Asia. The third British Empire was the construction of a 'white' dominion power bloc in the international system based on Britain's relations with its settler offshoots Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa ... The fourth British Empire, meanwhile, is used to denote Britain's rejuvenated imperial focus on Africa and South-East Asia following the Second World War and the independence in 1947–48 of Britain's South Asian dependencies, when the Empire became a vital crutch in Britain's economic recovery.[61]
The first Empire was founded in the 17th century, and based on the migration of large numbers of settlers to the American colonies, as well as the development of the sugar plantation colonies in the West Indies. It ended with the British loss of the American War for Independence. The second Empire had already started to emerge. It was originally designed as a chain of trading ports and naval bases. However, it expanded inland into the control of large numbers of natives when the East India Company proved highly successful in taking control of most of India. India became the keystone of the Second Empire, along with colonies later developed across Africa. A few new settler colonies were also built up in Australia and New Zealand, and to a lesser extent in South Africa. Marshall in 1999 shows the consensus of scholars is clear, for since 1900 the concepts of the First British Empire have "held their ground in historians' usage without serious challenge."[62] In 1988 Peter Marshall says that late-18th-century transformations:
constituted a fundamental reordering of the Empire which make it appropriate to talk about a first British Empire giving way to a second one ... Historians have long identified certain developments in the late eighteenth century that undermined the fundamentals of the old Empire and were to bring about a new one. These were the American Revolution and the industrial revolution.[63]
Historians, however, debate whether 1783 was a sharp line of demarcation between First and Second, or whether there was an overlap (as argued by Vincent T. Harlow[64]) or whether there was a "black hole between 1783 and the later birth of the Second Empire. Historian Denis Judd says the "black hole" is a fallacy and that there was continuity. Judd writes: It is commonplace to suppose that the successful revolt of the American colonies marked the end of the 'First British Empire'. But this is only a half-truth. In 1783 there was still a substantial Empire left."[65][66] Marshall notes that the exact dating of the two empires varies, with 1783 a typical demarcation point.[67] Thus the story of the American revolt provides a key: The Fall of the First British Empire: Origins of the Wars of American Independence (1982) by American professors Robert W. Tucker and David Hendrickson, stresses the victorious initiative of the Americans. By contrast Cambridge professor Brendan Simms explores Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783 (2007) and explains Britain's defeat in terms of alienating the major powers on the Continent.
Theories of imperialism
Theories about imperialism typically focus on the Second British Empire,[68] with side glances elsewhere. The term "Imperialism" was originally introduced into English in its present sense in the 1870s by Liberal leader William Gladstone to ridicule the imperial policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, which he denounced as aggressive and ostentatious and inspired by domestic motives.[69] The term was shortly appropriated by supporters of "imperialism" such as Joseph Chamberlain. For some, imperialism designated a policy of idealism and philanthropy; others alleged that it was characterized by political self-interest, and a growing number associated it with capitalist greed.[70]
As the application of the term "imperialism" has expanded, its meaning has shifted along five axes: the moral, the economic, the systemic, the cultural, and the temporal. Those changes reflect a growing unease, even squeamishness, with the fact of power, specifically, Western power.[74][75]
The relationships among capitalism, imperialism, exploitation, social reform and economic development has long been debated among historians and political theorists. Much of the debate was pioneered by such theorists as
Hobson for years was widely influential in liberal circles, especially the British Liberal Party.
Imperialism of Free Trade
Historians agree that in the 1840s, Britain adopted a free-trade policy, meaning open markets and no tariffs throughout the empire.
Reviewing the debate from the end of the 20th century, historian Martin Lynn argues that Gallagher and Robinson exaggerated the impact. He says that Britain achieved its goal of increasing its economic interests in many areas, "but the broader goal of 'regenerating' societies and thereby creating regions tied as 'tributaries' to British economic interests was not attained." The reasons were:
the aim to reshape the world through free trade and its extension overseas owed more to the misplaced optimism of British policy-makers and their partial views of the world than to an understanding of the realities of the mid-19th century globe ... the volumes of trade and investment...the British were able to generate remained limited ... Local economies and local regimes proved adept at restricting the reach of British trade and investment. Local impediments to foreign inroads, the inhabitants' low purchasing power, the resilience of local manufacturing, and the capabilities of local entrepreneurs meant that these areas effectively resisted British economic penetration.[88]
The idea that free-trade imperial states use informal controls to secure their expanding economic influence has attracted Marxists trying to avoid the problems of earlier Marxist interpretations of capitalism. The approach is most often applied to American policies.[89]
Free trade versus tariffs
Historians have begun to explore some of the ramifications of British free-trade policy, especially the effect of American and German high tariff policies. Canada adopted a "national policy" of high tariffs in the late 19th century, in sharp distinction to the mother country. The goal was to protect its infant manufacturing industries from low-cost imports from the United States and Britain.[90][91] The demand increasingly rose in Great Britain to end the free trade policy and impose tariffs to protect its manufacturing from American and German competition.[92] The leading spokesman was Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) and he made "tariff reform" (that is, imposing higher tariffs) a central issue in British domestic politics.[93] By the 1930s the British began shifting their policies away from free trade and toward low tariffs inside the British Commonwealth, and higher tariffs for outside products. Economic historians have debated at length the impact of these tariff changes on economic growth. One controversial formulation by Bairoch argues that in the 1870–1914 era: "protectionism = economic growth and expansion of trade; liberalism = stagnation in both".[94] Many studies have supported Bairoch but other economists have challenged his results regarding Canada.[95]
Gentlemanly capitalism
Gentlemanly capitalism is a theory of New Imperialism first put forward by P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins in the 1980s before being fully developed in their 1993 work, British Imperialism.[96] The theory posits that British imperialism was driven by the business interests of the City of London and landed interests. It encourages a shift of emphasis away from seeing provincial manufacturers and geopolitical strategy as important influences, and towards seeing the expansion of empire as emanating from London and the financial sector.[97][98]
Benevolence, human rights and slavery
This section may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. (October 2023) |
Kevin Grant shows that numerous historians in the 21st century have explored relationships between the Empire, international government and human rights. They have focused on British conceptions of imperial world order from the late 19th century to the Cold War.
Promotion and abolition of slavery
English historian Jeremy Black argues that:
- Slavery and the slave trade are the most difficult and contentious aspect of the imperial legacy, one that captures the full viciousness of power, economic, political, and military, and that leaves a clear and understandable hostility to empire in the Atlantic world, Moreover, within Britain, slavery and the slave trade became and become, ready ways to stigmatize empire, and increasingly so, notably as Britain becomes a multiracial society.[105]
One of the most controversial aspects of the Empire is its role in first promoting and then ending slavery.[106] In the 18th century, British merchant ships were the largest element in the "Middle Passage", which transported millions of slaves to the Western Hemisphere. Most of those who survived the journey wound up in the Caribbean, where the Empire had highly profitable sugar colonies, and the living conditions were bad (the plantation owners lived in Britain). Parliament ended the international transportation of slaves in 1807 and used the Royal Navy to enforce that ban. In 1833, it bought out the plantation owners and banned slavery. Historians before the 1940s argued that moralistic reformers such as William Wilberforce were primarily responsible.[107]
Historical revisionism arrived when West Indian historian Eric Williams, a Marxist, in Capitalism and Slavery (1944), rejected this moral explanation and argued that abolition was now more profitable, as a century of sugar cane raising had exhausted the soil of the islands, and the plantations had become unprofitable. It was more profitable to sell the slaves to the government than to keep up operations. The 1807 prohibition of the international trade, Williams argued, prevented French expansion on other islands. Meanwhile, British investors turned to Asia, where labor was so plentiful that slavery was unnecessary. Williams went on to argue that slavery played a major role in making Britain prosperous. The high profits from the slave trade, he said, helped finance the Industrial Revolution. Britain enjoyed prosperity because of the capital gained from the unpaid work of slaves.[108]
Since the 1970s, numerous historians have challenged Williams from various angles, and Gad Heuman has concluded, "More recent research has rejected this conclusion; it is now clear that the colonies of the British Caribbean profited considerably during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars."[109][110] In his major attack on the Williams's thesis, Seymour Drescher argues that Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1807 resulted not from the diminishing value of slavery for Britain but instead from the moral outrage of the British voting public.[111] Critics have also argued that slavery remained profitable in the 1830s because of innovations in agriculture so the profit motive was not central to abolition.[112] Richardson (1998) finds that Williams's claims regarding the Industrial Revolution are exaggerated, as profits from the slave trade amounted to less than 1% of domestic investment in Britain. Richardson further challenges claims (by African scholars) that the slave trade caused widespread depopulation and economic distress in Africa but that it caused the "underdevelopment" of Africa. Admitting the horrible suffering of slaves, he notes that many Africans benefited directly because the first stage of the trade was always firmly in the hands of Africans. European slave ships waited at ports to purchase cargoes of people who were captured in the hinterland by African dealers and tribal leaders. Richardson finds that the "terms of trade" (how much the ship owners paid for the slave cargo) moved heavily in favour of the Africans after about 1750. That is, indigenous elites inside West and Central Africa made large and growing profits from slavery, thus increasing their wealth and power.[113]
Economic historian Stanley Engerman finds that even without subtracting the associated costs of the slave trade (shipping costs, slave mortality, mortality of British people in Africa, defence costs) or reinvestment of profits back into the slave trade, the total profits from the slave trade and of West Indian plantations amounted to less than 5% of the British economy during any year of the Industrial Revolution.[114] Engerman's 5% figure gives as much as possible in terms of benefit of the doubt to the Williams argument, not solely because it does not take into account the associated costs of the slave trade to Britain, but also because it carries the full-employment assumption from economics and holds the gross value of slave trade profits as a direct contribution to Britain's national income.[115] Historian Richard Pares, in an article written before Williams's book, dismisses the influence of wealth generated from the West Indian plantations upon the financing of the Industrial Revolution, stating that whatever substantial flow of investment from West Indian profits into industry there was occurred after emancipation, not before it.[116]
Whiggish history and the civilising mission
External links
- "Making History", Coverage of leading British historians and institutions from the Institute of Historical Research
Further reading
Part of a series on |
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See also |
Basic bibliography
- Bayly, C. A. ed. Atlas of the British Empire (1989). survey by scholars; heavily illustrated
- Brendon, Piers. "A Moral Audit of the British Empire", History Today (October 2007), Vol. 57, Issue 10, pp. 44–47, online at EBSCO
- Brendon, Piers. The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997 (2008), wide-ranging survey
- Bryant, Arthur. The History of Britain and the British Peoples, 3 vols (1984–90), popular.
- Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp.
- Darwin, John. The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830–1970 (2009) excerpt and text search
- Darwin, John. Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain (2013)
- Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (2002); Also published as Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (2002).
- Howe, Stephen ed., The New Imperial Histories Reader (2009) online review
- Jackson, Ashley. The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction (2013) excerpt.
- James, Lawrence. The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (1998). A one-volume history of the Empire, from the American colonies to the Handover of Hong Kong; also online
- Knaplund, Paul. The British empire, 1815–1939 (1941), very wide-ranging; online
- Marshall, P. J. (ed.), The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire (1996). online
- Olson, James S., and Robert S. Shadle; Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (1996)
- Panton, Kenneth J., ed. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire (2015) 766 pp.
- Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire (2008), 800 pp. excerpt and text search
Overviews
- Belich, James. Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld, 1780-1930 (Oxford University Press, 2009), 448 pp.; focus on British settlement colonies of Canada, Australia and New Zealand, emphasizing the heavy British investments involved
- Black, Jeremy. The British Seaborne Empire (2004)
- Cain, P. J., and A. G. Hopkins. British Imperialism, 1688-2000 (2nd edn 2001) 739 pp.; detailed economic history that presents the new "gentlemanly capitalists" thesis;
- Colley, Linda. Captives: Britain, Empire, and the World, 1600–1850 (2004), 464 pp.
- Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion (1993).
- Judd, Denis. Empire: The British Imperial Experience, From 1765 to the Present (1996).
- Levine, Philippa. The British Empire: sunrise to sunset (3rd ed. Routledge, 2020) excerpt
- Lloyd, T. O. The British Empire, 1558-1995 Oxford University Press, 1996
- Muir, Ramsay. A short history of the British commonwealth (2 vol 1920-22; 8th ed. 1954). online
- Parsons, Timothy H. The British imperial century, 1815–1914: A world history perspective (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).
- Royal Institute of International Affairs. The Colonial Problem (1937); broad-based review of current status of European colonies, especially British Empire. online.
- Robinson, Howard . The Development of the British Empire (1922), 465 pp. edition.
- Rose, J. Holland, A. P. Newton and E. A. Benians (general editor), The Cambridge History of the British Empire, 9 vols (1929–61); vol 1: "The Old Empire from the Beginnings to 1783" 934pp online edition Volume I
- Volume II: The Growth of the New Empire 1783-1870 (1968) online
- Smith, Simon C. British Imperialism 1750-1970 (1998). brief
- Stockwell, Sarah, ed. The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (2008), 355 pp.
Oxford History
- Louis, William. Roger (general editor), The Oxford History of the British Empire, 5 vols (1998–99).
- Vol. 1 "The Origins of Empire" ed. Nicholas Canny online
- Vol. 2 "The Eighteenth Century" ed. P. J. Marshall online
- Vol. 3 The Nineteenth Century ed. Andrew Porter (1998). 780 pp. online edition
- Vol. 4 The Twentieth Century ed. Judith M. Brown (1998). 773 pp. online edition
- Vol. 5 "Historiography", ed. Robin W. Winks (1999) online
Oxford History Companion series
- Beinart, William, and Lotte Hughes, eds. Environment and Empire (2007)
- Bickers, Robert, ed. Settlers and Expatriates: Britons over the Seas (2014)
- Buckner, Phillip, ed. Canada and the British Empire (2010)
- Etherington, Norman. Missions and Empire (2008) on Protestant missions
- Harper, Marjory, and Stephen Constantine, eds. Migration and Empire (2010)
- Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire(2006) excerpt and text search
- Peers, Douglas M. and Nandini Gooptu, eds. India and the British Empire (2012)
- Schreuder, Deryck and Stuart Ward, eds. Australia's Empire (2010)
- Thompson, Andrew, ed. Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century (2012)
Atlases, geography, environment
- Bartholomew, John. Atlas of the British empire throughout the world (1868 edition) online 1868 edition; (1877 edition) online 1877 edition, the maps are poorly reproduced
- Beattie, James (2012). "Recent Themes in the Environmental History of the British Empire". History Compass. 10 (2): 129–139. .
- Dalziel, Nigel. The Penguin Historical Atlas of the British Empire (2006), 144 pp
- Faunthorpe, John Pincher. Geography of the British colonies and foreign possessions (1874) online edition
- Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 2: West Indies (1890) online edition
- Lucas, Charles Prestwood. A Historical Geography of the British Colonies: part 4: South and East Africa (1900) online edition
- MacKenzie, John M. The British Empire through buildings: Structure, function and meaning (Manchester UP, 2020) excerpt.
- Porter, A. N. Atlas of British Overseas Expansion (1994)
- The Year-book of the Imperial Institute of the United Kingdom, the colonies and India: a statistical record of the resources and trade of the colonial and Indian possessions of the British Empire (2nd. ed. 1893) 880pp; online edition
Political, economic and intellectual studies
- Andrews, Kenneth R. Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480–1630 (1984).
- Armitage, David. The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000).
- Armitage, David (1999). "Greater Britain: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis?". American Historical Review. 104 (2): 427–45. JSTOR 2650373.
- Armitage, David, ed. Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (1998).
- Armitage, David, and M. J. Braddick, eds. The British Atlantic World, 1500–1800, (2002)
- Barker, Sir Ernest, The Ideas and Ideals of the British Empire (1941).
- Baumgart, W. Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880-1914 (1982)
- Bayly, C. A. Imperial Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780-1831 (1989).
- Stern, Philip J. "Early Eighteenth-Century British India: Antimeridian or antemeridiem?." Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 21.2 (2020) pp 1–26, focus on Bayly.
- Bell, Duncan The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (2007)
- Bell, Duncan (ed.) Victorian Visions of Global Order: Empire and International Relations in Nineteenth Century Political Thought (2007)
- Bennett, George (ed.), The Concept of Empire: Burke to Attlee, 1774–1947 (1953).
- Blaut, J. M. The Colonizers' Model of the World 1993
- Bowen, H. V. Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833 (2006), 304pp
- Cain; Hopkins, A. G. (1986). "Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas I. The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850". Economic History Review. 39 (4): 501–525. JSTOR 2596481.
- Cain; Hopkins, A. G. (1987). "Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas II: New Imperialism, 1850-1945". The Economic History Review. 40 (1): 1–26. JSTOR 2596293.
- Cain; Hopkins, A. G. (1980). "The Political Economy of British Expansion Overseas, 1750-1914". The Economic History Review. 33 (4): 463–490. JSTOR 2594798.
- Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of Empire: How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World (2017).
- Crooks, Peter, and Timothy H. Parsons, eds. Empires and bureaucracy in world history: from late antiquity to the twentieth century (Cambridge UP, 2016) chapters 1, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17.
- Darby, Philip. The Three Faces of Imperialism: British and American Approaches to Asia and Africa, 1870-1970 (1987)
- Doyle, Michael W. Empires (1986).
- Dumett, Raymond E. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire. (1999). 234 pp.
- Gallagher, John, and Ronald Robinson. "The Imperialism of Free Trade" The Economic History Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1953), pp. 1–15 in JSTOR, online free at Mt. Holyoke highly influential interpretation in its day
- Gilbert, Helen, and Chris Tiffin, eds. Burden or Benefit?: Imperial Benevolence and Its Legacies (2008)
- Harlow, V. T. The Founding of the Second British Empire, 1763–1793, 2 vols. (1952–64).
- Heinlein, Frank. British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945-1963: Scrutinising the Official Mind (2002).
- Herbertson, A. J. The Oxford Survey of the British Empire, (1914)
- Ingram, Edward. The British Empire as a World Power: Ten Studies (2001)
- Jackson, Ashley. British Empire and the Second World War (2006)
- Johnson, Robert. British Imperialism (2003). historiography
- Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1921). War government of the British dominions. Clarendon Press., First World War
- Kennedy, Paul, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (1976).
- Koehn, Nancy F. The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994)
- Knorr, Klaus E., British Colonial Theories 1570–1850 (1944).
- Louis, William Roger. Imperialism at Bay: The United States and the Decolonization of the British Empire, 1941-1945 (1978)
- McIntyre, W. David. The commonwealth of nations: Origins and impact, 1869–1971 (U of Minnesota Press, 1977); Comprehensive coverage giving London's perspective on political and constitutional relations with each possession.link
- Marshall, Peter James (2005). The Making and Unmaking of Empires: Britain, India, and America C.1750-1783. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927895-4.
- Mehta, Uday Singh, Liberalism and Empire: A Study in Nineteenth-Century British Liberal Thought (1999).
- Pares, Richard. “The Economic Factors in the History of the Empire.” Economic History Review 7#2 (1937), pp. 119–144. online
- Porter, Bernard. The Lion's Share: A History of British Imperialism 1850-2011 (4th ed. 2012), Wide-ranging general history; strong on anti-imperialism. online
- Thornton, A.P. The Imperial Idea and its Enemies (2nd ed. 1985)
- Tinker, Hugh. A New System of Slavery: The Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830-1920 (1974).
- Webster, Anthony. Gentlemen Capitalists: British Imperialism in South East Asia, 1770-1890 (1998)
Diplomacy and military policy
- Bannister, Jerry, and Liam Riordan, eds. The Loyal Atlantic: Remaking the British Atlantic in the Revolutionary Era (U of Toronto Press, 2012).
- Bartlett, C. J. British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (1989)
- Bemis, Samuel Flagg (1935). The Diplomacy of the American Revolution. American Historical Association., a standard history
- Black, Jeremy. America or Europe? British Foreign Policy, 1739-63 (1998)
- Black, Jeremy, ed. Knights Errant and True Englishmen: British Foreign Policy, 1660-1800 (2003) essays by scholars
- Black, Jeremy. George III: America's last king (Yale UP, 2006).
- Chandler, David, and Ian Beckett, eds. The Oxford History of the British Army (2003). excerpt
- Colley, Thomas. Always at War: British Public Narratives of War (U of Michigan Press, 2019) online review
- Cotterell, Arthur. Western Power in Asia: Its Slow Rise and Swift Fall, 1415 - 1999 (2009) popular history; excerpt
- Dilks, David. Retreat from Power: 1906-39 v. 1: Studies in Britain's Foreign Policy of the Twentieth Century (1981); Retreat from Power: After 1939 v. 2 (1981)
- Haswell, Jock, and John Lewis-Stempel. A Brief History of the British Army (2017).
- Jackson, Ashley. The British Empire and the Second World War (2007) 624pp; Comprehensive coverage.
- Jackson, Ashley. "New Research on the British Empire and the Second World War: Part II." Global War Studies 7.2 (2010): 157-184; historiography
- Jones, J. R. Britain and the World, 1649-1815 (1980)
- Langer, William L. The Diplomacy of Imperialism, 1890-1902 (2nd ed. 1950)
- Mulligan, William, and Brendan Simms, eds. The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660-2000 (Palgrave Macmillan; 2011) 345 pages
- Nester, William R. Titan: The Art of British Power in the Age of Revolution and Napoleon (2016) excerpt
- O'Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson. The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2014).
- Strang, Lord William. Britain in World Affairs: A survey of the Fluctuations in British Power and Influence from Henry VIII to Elizabeth II (1961). Online Popular history by a diplomat.
- Vickers, Rhiannon. The Evolution of Labour's Foreign Policy, 1900-51 (2003) focus on decolonization
- Webster, Charles. The Foreign Policy of Palmerston (1951)
- Wiener, Joel H. ed. Great Britain: Foreign Policy and the Span of Empire, 1689-1971: A Documentary History (1972) 876pp [ primary sources
- Wyman-McCarthy, Matthew (2018). "British abolitionism and global empire in the late 18th century: A historiographic overview". History Compass. 16 (10): e12480. S2CID 149779622.
Slavery and race
- Auerbach, Sascha. Race, Law, and "The Chinese Puzzle" in Imperial Britain (2009).
- Ballantyne, Tony. Orientalism and Race: Aryanism in the British Empire (2002)
- Drescher, Seymour. Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery (2009) excerpt and text search
- Dumas, Paula E. Proslavery Britain: Fighting for slavery in an era of abolition (Springer, 2016).
- Eltis, David, and Stanley L. Engerman. "The importance of slavery and the slave trade to industrializing Britain." Journal of Economic History 60.1 (2000): 123-144. online
- Green, William A. British slave emancipation, the sugar colonies and the great experiment, 1830-1865 (Oxford, 1981)
- Guasco, Michael (2014). Slaves and Englishmen: Human Bondage in the Early Modern Atlantic. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Grant, Kevin. A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926 (2005).
- Killingray, David, and Martin Plaut. "Race and Imperialism in the British Empire: A Lateral View." South African Historical Journal (2020): 1-28.
- Lake, Marilyn and Reynolds, David. Drawing the Global Colour Line: White Men's Countries and the International Challenge of Racial Equality (2008).
- Look Lai, Walton. Indentured Labor, Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838-1918 1993.
- Morgan, Philip D. and Sean Hawkins, eds. Black Experience and the Empire(2006), Oxford History Companion series
- Quinault, Roland. "Gladstone and slavery." The Historical Journal 52.2 (2009): 363-383.
- Robinson, Ronald, John Gallagher, Alice Denny. Africa and the Victorians: The Climax of Imperialism in the Dark Continent (1961)
- Taylor, Michael. "The British West India interest and its allies, 1823–1833." English Historical Review 133.565 (2018): 1478-1511. , focus on slavery
- Walker, Eric A., ed. The Cambridge history of the British Empire Volume VIII: South Africa, Rhodesia and the High Commission Territories (1963) online
Social and cultural studies; gender
- August, Thomas G. The Selling of the Empire: British and French Imperialist Propaganda, 1890-1940 (1985)
- Bailyn, Bernard, and Philip D. Morgan (eds.), Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991)
- Brantlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914 (1988).
- Broich, John. "Engineering the Empire: British Water Supply Systems and Colonial Societies, 1850-1900." Journal of British Studies 2007 46(2): 346-365. Ebsco
- Burton, Antoinette, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865-1915 (U of North Carolina Press, 1994).
- Chaudhuri, Nupur. "Imperialism and Gender." in Encyclopedia of European Social History, edited by Peter N. Stearns, (vol. 1, 2001), pp. 515-521. online
- Clayton, Martin. and Bennett Zon. Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s (2007) excerpt and text search
- Constantine, Stephen (2003). "British Emigration to the Empire-commonwealth since 1880: from Overseas Settlement to Diaspora?". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 31 (2): 16–35. S2CID 162001571.
- Finn, Margot (2006). "Colonial gifts: Family politics and the exchange of goods in British India, c. 1780-1820" (PDF). Modern Asian Studies. 40 (1): 203–231. S2CID 154303105.
- Hall, Catherine, and Sonya O. Rose. At Home with the Empire: Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World (2007)
- Hall, Catherine. Civilising Subjects: Colony and Metropole in the English Imagination, 1830–1867 (2002)
- Hodgkins, Christopher. Reforming Empire: Protestant Colonialism and Conscience in British Literature (U of Missouri Press, 2002)
- Hyam, Ronald. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience (1990).
- Karatani, Rieko. Defining British Citizenship: Empire, Commonwealth, and Modern Britain (2003)
- Kuczynski, Robert R. Demographic survey of the British Colonial Empire (1 vol 1948) vol 1 West Africa online; also vol 2 East Africa online
- Lassner, Phyllis. Colonial Strangers: Women Writing the End of the British Empire (2004)
- Lazarus, Neil, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial Literary Studies (2004)
- Levine, Philippa, ed. Gender and Empire. Oxford History of the British Empire (2004).
- McDevitt, Patrick F. May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935 (2004).
- Midgley, Clare. Feminism and Empire: women activists in imperial Britain, 1790–1865 (Routledge, 2007)
- Morgan, Philip D. and Hawkins, Sean, ed. Black Experience and the Empire (2004).
- Morris, Jan. The Spectacle of Empire: Style, Effect and Pax Britannica (1982).
- Naithani, Sadhana. The Story-Time of the British Empire: Colonial and Postcolonial Folkloristics (2010)
- Newton, Arthur Percival. The Universities And Educational Systems Of The British Empire (1924) online
- Porter, Andrew. Religion Versus Empire?: British Protestant Missionaries and Overseas Expansion, 1700-1914 (2004)
- Potter, Simon J. News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System. Clarendon, 2003
- Price, Richard. "One Big Thing: Britain, its Empire, and Their Imperial Culture." Journal of British Studies 2006 45(3): 602-627. Ebsco
- Price, Richard. Making Empire: Colonial Encounters and the Creation of Imperial Rule in Nineteenth-Century Africa 2008.
- Richards, Eric. Britannia's children: emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600 (A&C Black, 2004) online.
- Rubinstein, W. D. Capitalism, Culture, and Decline in Britain, 1750-1990 (1993),
- Rüger, Jan. "Nation, Empire and Navy: Identity Politics in the United Kingdom 1887-1914" Past & Present 2004 (185): 159-187.
- Sauerberg, Lars Ole. Intercultural Voices in Contemporary British Literature: The Implosion of Empire (2001)
- Sinha, Mrinalini, "Colonial Masculinity: The 'Manly Englishman' and the 'Effeminate Bengali' in the Late Nineteenth Century" (1995)
- Smith, Michelle J., Clare Bradford, et al. From Colonial to Modern: Transnational Girlhood in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Literature, 1840-1940 (2018) excerpt
- Spurr, David. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration (1993).
- Trollope, Joanna. Britannia's Daughters: Women of the British Empire (1983).
- Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British imperial education policy, Part I: India." History of Education 34#3 (2005): 315-329.
- Whitehead, Clive. "The historiography of British Imperial education policy, Part II: Africa and the rest of the colonial empire." History of Education 34#4 (2005): 441-454.
- Wilson, Kathleen. The Island Race: Englishness, Empire, and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (2003).
- Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture Identity, and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (2004)
- Wilson, Kathleen (2011). "Rethinking the Colonial State: Family, Gender, and Governmentality in Eighteenth-Century British Frontiers". American Historical Review. 116 (5): 1294–1322. .
- Xypolia, Ilia. British Imperialism and Turkish Nationalism in Cyprus, 1923-1939:Divide, Define and Rule. Routledge, 2017
Regional studies
- Bailyn, Bernard. Strangers Within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire (1991) excerpt and text search
- Bruckner, Phillip. Canada and the British Empire (The Oxford History of the British Empire) (2010) excerpt and text search online
- Elliott, J.H., Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (2006), a major interpretation excerpt and text search
- Kenny, Kevin, ed. Ireland and the British Empire (2004).
- Landsman, Ned. Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America (2010) excerpt and text search
- Lees, Lynn Hollen. Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1786-1941 (2017).
- Lester, Alan. Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain (2001).
- Louis, William Roger. The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism (1984)
- Marshall, Peter, and Glyn Williams, eds. The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution (1980)
- Taylor, Alan. The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, and Indian Allies (2010), on War of 1812
- Veevers, David. The Origins of the British Empire in Asia, 1600–1750 (2020) excerpt.
Historiography and memory
- Adams, James Truslow (1927). "On the Term 'British Empire'". American Historical Review. 22 (3): 485–459. JSTOR 1837801.
- Armitage, David (1999). "Greater Britain: A Useful Category of Analysis?". American Historical Review. 104 (2): 427–445. JSTOR 2650373.
- Bailkin, Jordanna (2015). "Where Did the Empire Go? Archives and Decolonization in Britain". American Historical Review. 120 (3): 884–899. .
- Ballantyne, Tony (2010). "The Changing Shape of the Modern British Empire and its Historiography". Historical Journal. 53 (2): 429–452. S2CID 162458960.
- Barone, Charles A. Marxist Thought on Imperialism: Survey and Critique (1985)
- Bowen, Huw V (1998). "British Conceptions of Global Empire, 1756–83". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 26 (3): 1–27. .
- Black, Jeremy. Imperial Legacies: The British Empire Around the World (Encounter Books, 2019) excerpt.
- Buckner, Phillip. "Presidential Address: Whatever happened to the British Empire?" Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (1993) 4#1 pp. 3–32. online
- Burnard, Trevor (2007). "Empire Matters? The Historiography of Imperialism in Early America, 1492–1830". History of European Ideas. 33 (1): 87–107. S2CID 143511493.
- Burton, Antoinette and Isabel Hofmeyr, eds. Ten Books That Shaped the British Empire: Creating an Imperial Commons (2014) excerpt
- Cannadine, David, "'Big Tent' Historiography: Transatlantic Obstacles and Opportunities in Writing the History of Empire", Common Knowledge (2005) 11#3 pp. 375–392 at Project MUSE
- Cannadine, David. Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire (2002)
- Cannadine, David. "The Empire Strikes Back", Past & Present No. 147 (May, 1995), pp. 180–194 [1]
- Cannadine, David. Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800-1906(2018)
- Colley, Linda. "What Is Imperial History Now?" in David Cannadine, ed. What Is History Now? (2002), 132–147.
- Drayton, Richard. "Where does the world historian write from? Objectivity, moral conscience and the past and present of imperialism". Journal of Contemporary History 2011; 46#3 pp. 671–685. online
- Dumett, Raymond E. ed. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism: The New Debate on Empire (1999) online
- Elton, G. R. Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969 (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online
- Fieldhouse, David (1984). "Can Humpty-Dumpty be put together again? Imperial history in the 1980s". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 12 (2): 9–23. .
- Fieldhouse, David K. "'Imperialism': An Historiographical Revision". Economic History Review 14#2 (1961): 187–209. [2]
- Ghosh, Durba. "Another set of imperial turns?". American Historical Review 2012; 117#3 pp: 772–793. online
- Griffin, Patrick. "In Retrospect: Lawrence Henry Gipson's The British Empire before the American Revolution" Reviews in American History, 31#2 (2003), pp. 171–183 in JSTOR
- Hyam, Ronald (2001). "The study of imperial and commonwealth history at Cambridge, 1881–1981: Founding fathers and pioneer research students". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 29 (3): 75–103. S2CID 161602517.
- Hyam, Ronald. Understanding the British Empire (2010), 576pp; essays by Hyam.
- Johnson David, and Prem Poddar, eds. A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Thought in English (Columbia UP, 2005).
- Kennedy, Dane. The Imperial History Wars: Debating the British Empire (2018) excerpt
- Kennedy, Dane (2015). "The Imperial History Wars". Journal of British Studies. 54 (1): 5–22. S2CID 154163198.
- Lester, Alan, Kate Boehme, and Peter Mitchell, eds. Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire (Cambridge UP, 2021).
- Lieven, Dominic. Empire: The Russian empire and its rivals (Yale UP, 2002), comparisons with Russian, Habsburg & Ottoman empires. excerpt
- MacKenzie, John M (2015). "The British Empire: Ramshackle or Rampaging? A Historiographical Reflection". Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 43 (1): 99–124. S2CID 161901237.
- Morris, Richard B. "The Spacious Empire of Lawrence Henry Gipson," William and Mary Quarterly, (1967) 24#2 pp. 170–189 at JSTOR; covers the "Imperial School" of Americanscholars, 1900–1940s
- Nelson, Paul David. "British Conduct of the American Revolutionary War: A Review of Interpretations." Journal of American History 65.3 (1978): 623-653. online
- Peers, Douglas M (2002). "Is Humpty Dumpty back together again?: The revival of imperial history and the Oxford History of the British Empire". Journal of World History. 13 (2): 451–467. S2CID 144790936.
- Pocock, J. G. A. (1982). "The Limits and Divisions of British History: In Search of the Unknown Subject". American Historical Review. 87 (2): 311–336. JSTOR 1870122.
- Prakash, Gyan (1990). "Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World: Perspectives from Indian Historiography". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 32 (2): 383–408. S2CID 144435305.
- Philips, Cyril H. ed. Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon (1961), reviews the older scholarship
- Rasor, Eugene L. Winston S. Churchill, 1874-1965: A Comprehensive Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (2000) 712pp; online
- Shaw, A. G. L. (1969). "British Attitudes to the Colonies, Ca. 1820-1850". Journal of British Studies. 9 (1): 71–95. S2CID 145273743.
- Stern, Philip J (2009). "History and Historiography of the English East India Company: Past, Present, and Future". History Compass. 7 (4): 1146–1180. .
- Syriatou, Athena (2013). "National, Imperial, Colonial and the Political: British Imperial Histories and their Descendants" (PDF). Historein. 12: 38–67. .
- Thompson, Andrew (2001). "Is Humpty Dumpty Together Again? Imperial History and the Oxford History of the British Empire". Twentieth Century British History. 12 (4): 511–527. .
- Webster, Anthony. The Debate on the Rise of British Imperialism (Issues in Historiography) (2006)
- Wilson, Kathleen, ed. A New Imperial History: Culture, Identity and Modernity in Britain and the Empire, 1660–1840 (2004). excerpt and text search
- Winks, Robin, ed. Historiography (1999) vol. 5 in William Roger Louis, eds. The Oxford History of the British Empire
- Winks, Robin W. The Historiography of the British Empire-Commonwealth: Trends, Interpretations and Resources (1966); this book is by a different set of authors from the previous 1999 entry
- Winks, Robin W. "Problem Child of British History: The British Empire-Commonwealth", in Richard Schlatter, ed., Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966 (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp. 451–492
- Winks, Robin W., ed. British Imperialism: Gold, God, Glory (1963) excerpts from 15 historians from early 20th century, plus commentary and bibliography.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Board of Education. Educational Systems of the Chief Crown Colonies and Possessions of the British Empire (1905). 340pp online edition
- Boehmer, Elleke ed. Empire Writing: An Anthology of Colonial Literature, 1870–1918 (1998)
- Brooks, Chris. and Peter Faulkner (eds.), The White Man's Burdens: An Anthology of British Poetry of the Empire (Exeter UP, 1996).
- Hall, Catherine. ed. Cultures of Empire: A Reader: Colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries (2000)
- Herbertson, A. J. and O. J. R. Howarth. eds. The Oxford Survey Of The British Empire (6 vol 1914) online vol 2 on Asia and India 555pp; on Africa; vole 1 America; vp; 6 General topics
- Madden, Frederick, ed. The End of Empire: Dependencies since 1948: Select Documents on the Constitutional History of the British Empire and Commonwealth: The West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar, and the Falklands (2000) 596pp
- Madden, Frederick, and John Darwin, ed. The Dependent Empire: 1900–1948: Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandates (1963) 908pp
- Mansergh, Nicholas, ed. Documents and Speeches on Commonwealth Affairs, 1952–1962 (1963) 804pp
- Wiener, Joel H. ed. Great Britain: Foreign Policy and the Span of Empire, 1689-1971: A Documentary History (4 vol 1972) 3400pp; Mostly statements by British leaders
External links
- British Empire Gateway
- Primary sources and older secondary sources
- "The British Empire at War Research Group", Comprehensive coverage of the Empire during Second World War.
- "The British Empire"