Britain and the World
A Palgrave Macmillan History Series
Series Editors
- James Onley, University of Exeter
- A. G. Hopkins, University of Texas at Austin
- Gregory Barton, The Australian National University
- Bryan S. Glass, University of Texas at Austin
Series Description
Britain’s influence on the modern world has been profound and far reaching, touching every continent and subject, from Africa to South America and archaeology to zoology. Britain and the World is a book series examining the extent and significance of that influence, and of the world’s influence on Britain, from the late seventeenth century to the present.
From the seventeenth century onward, the histories of Britain and the world became increasingly intertwined. Yet mainstream British history still neglects the world’s influence upon domestic developments, and British overseas history remains largely confined to the study of the British Empire. This series takes a broader approach to British history, seeking to investigate the full extent of these influences.
The seventeenth century saw the establishment of British settlements in the Americas and trading outposts in Asia. It also witnessed the last invasion of Britain, with the arrival of King William of Orange, the establishment of a half-Dutch monarchy, and the infusion of Dutch banking. In the eighteenth century, Britain’s influence on the world and the world’s influence on Britain touched the lives of millions: from British goods and governance overseas to foreign foods and fashions at home. By the nineteenth century, these influences and the spread of ideas had a profound impact on Britain and the wider world. In the twentieth century, the world came to Britain through the process of decolonization as millions of immigrants from the colonies flocked to Britain for work and a new life.
Today, no area of the world remains untouched by Britain and its Empire, and no part of Britain remains untouched by the world. English is the world’s language for business, education, and politics; parliamentary houses can be found throughout the world; British common law is used on every continent; and British networks of telegraphs, ports, railways, and financial flows have shaped the way we communicate, travel, talk, and trade. This globalization of Britain occurred primarily through its formal and informal empires. The gold standard was adopted in many countries because of British advisors in foreign governments. Mines and infrastructure in Argentina, Thailand, and China were built and used by British businesses. Imperial networks made possible the flow of migrant workers, emigrants, capital, and ideas. Universities modeled on Oxford and Cambridge were established around the world. In these and other ways, countless features of the modern world can be traced back to the influence of Britain and its Empire.
The study of British history from a global perspective also helps to clarify many central paradoxes, problems, and questions that have arisen from national histories. Nationalism and national identity in Britain have occurred through larger global processes. British identity was forged in part vis-à-vis Britons’ encounters with their Empire, Europe, and the wider world. The resurgence of Scottish nationalism in the middle of the twentieth century, the economic ascendency of Ireland after joining the European Union in the late twentieth century, and questions arising over British identity all show the complex European, imperial, and global origins to modern identity and politics in Britain. Historians cannot seek to understand national or regional identities in Britain, or any country it interacted with, during the modern era without considering the complex interactions between local and global forces.
> Click here to visit the book series webpage.
Submitting Proposals
If you would like to submit a book proposal the series, please fill out the proposal form found here and submit it, together with your book’s table of contents, a sample chapter or two, your CV, and the names of five potential peer reviewers to: editor
britishscholar
org (editorbritishscholarorg) .
Information for Authors
Please click here for further information.
Books in the Series
Imperial Endgame: Britain’s Dirty Wars and the End of Empire by Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon (Publication date: 6 May 2011)
To purchase this book and many others on Britain’s interactions with the wider world please visit The British Scholar Society Store at Amazon.
Description from Palgrave Macmillan’s website:
The story of the British Empire in the twentieth century is one of decline, disarray, and despondency. Or so we have been told. In this fresh and controversial account of Britain’s end of empire, Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon rejects this consensus, showing instead that in the years 1945-1960 the British government developed a successful imperial strategy based on devolving power to indigenous peoples within the Commonwealth. This strategy was calculated to allow decolonization to occur on British terms rather than those of the indigenous populations, and to thus keep these soon-to-be former colonies within the British and Western spheres of influence during the Cold War. To achieve this new form of informal liberal imperialism, however, the government had to rely upon the use of illiberal dirty wars. Spanning the globe from Palestine to Malaya, Kenya to Cyprus, these dirty wars represented Britain’s true imperial endgame.
What people are saying about it:
‘Grob-Fitzgibbon challenges the popular view that Britain shed its empire politely, like a tea party at the vicarage in an Agatha Christie mystery. He makes it clear that the reality was very different. Withdrawal from empire was difficult, dangerous and dirty and the politicians, diplomats, soldiers and policemen who brought empire to an end did so in a way not brought out as powerfully and persuasively before. For anyone worried about how things might end in Iraq or Afghanistan, Grob-Fitzgibbon’s excellent, dispassionate, forensic analysis will make uncomfortable but illuminating reading.’
- Colonel Alex Alderson, MBE, Director of the United Kingdom Counterinsurgency Centre
‘Imperial Endgame is a controversial and important book. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon has no time for conventional pieties. Junking the tired story of disarray and humiliation, he shows how Britain ruthlessly disposed of the Empire on its own unsentimental terms. This strategy often involved dirty tactics and dirty wars but the objective was clear: to keep newly-independent states within Britain’s sphere of influence. It’s a bold re-telling of the decolonisation story, pulled off with great style and panache.’
- Richard Aldous, author of The Lion and the Unicorn, and Eugene Meyer Professor of British History and Literature at Bard College, New York, USA
‘The end of the British Empire was characterized not only by relatively smooth transitions to independence but also by the winning of independence by violent means of insurgency. Imperial Endgame is an excellent history of the British counter-insurgency campaigns marking the end of colonial rule, above all in Palestine, Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden.’
- Wm. Roger Louis, University of Texas at Austin, USA
‘Is the British Empire a subject for apology or apologetics? Should we beat our breasts with David Cameron or “celebrate” it with Gordon Brown? One thing we’ve all been agreed on is that its loss was a story of helpless humiliation, of decline. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon begs to differ: Britain was always in charge, he says. From Palestine through Malaya, Africa to Aden and on to Cyprus, we find it wielding a stick of repression while holding out a carrot to shepherd the newly independent colonies into the Commonwealth – and into the western Cold War fold.
While his account is anything but pretty, it’s the strategic cynicism that pulls us up. That and the implications for today. Grob-Fitzgibbon is in no doubt of the moral: “liberal imperialism”, he concludes, “can only be sustained by illiberal dirty wars”.’
- Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman
Science and Empire: Knowledge and Networks of Science Across the British Empire, 1800-1970 edited by Brett M. Bennett and Joseph M. Hodge (Publication date: 13 September 2011 (UK) and 22 November 2011 (US))
To purchase this book and many others on Britain’s interactions with the wider world please visit The British Scholar Society Store at Amazon.
Description from Palgrave Macmillan’s website:
This new survey of scientific endeavor within the British Empire is the most wide-ranging yet published, examining the interconnections between science, the British Empire, and the emergence of a globalized world. It identifies and analyzes the web of scientific networks crisscrossing the British Empire through which scientific knowledge and authority were produced, circulated and legitimated, critically engaging with new ways of thinking about networked connections across space. It offers a comparative perspective that surveys a variety of scientific initiatives and circuits, including networks of agronomists, anatomists, botanists, foresters, geologists, marine biologists, oceanographers and physicists. As they chart the evolving practices, strategies, theoretical ideas and agendas among research scientists, technical advisers, imperial administrators, and native peoples in Africa, Australia, Britain, India and elsewhere; each chapter combines rigorous research with theoretical reflection based on the latest literature, as well as serving as a useful introduction to that literature.
British Diplomacy and the Descent into Chaos: The Career of Jack Garnett, 1902-19 by John Fisher (Publication date: 16 December 2011 (UK), 17 January 2012 (US))
To purchase this book and many others on Britain’s interactions with the wider world please visit The British Scholar Society Store at Amazon.
Description from Palgrave Macmillan’s website:
In his diplomatic career, from 1902–19, Jack Garnett served widely overseas during a period of dramatic change in international politics and in Britain’s role on the world stage. In this book, John Fisher reveals Garnett as a fascinating individual: head-strong, indiscreet, and accident-prone. Garnett’s early career was promising, but he left the Diplomatic Service under a cloud. Tired of the ‘old diplomacy’, he desired a holistic approach to the management of Britain’s overseas interests. Then, attracted by notions of constructive imperialism after the First World War, he undertook social work, before returning to the family seat in Lancashire. His correspondence provides the local, overseas, perspective on British foreign policy and is full of insights into life lived in embassies and legations. Fisher uses Garnett’s story to illuminate key issues in British overseas interests, including consular representation and the promotion of British commerce, as well as previously neglected subjects such as diplomats’ wives, travel, and expatriate communities.
2 Trackbacks
[...] Book Series [...]
[...] Book Series [...]