Understanding the British Empire

Study of key themes in the history of the British Empire by one of the senior figures in the field.

Introduction: perspectives, policies, and people; Part I. Dynamics: Geopolitics and Economics: 1. The primacy of geopolitics: the dynamics of British imperial policy, 1763-1963; 2. The partition of Africa: geopolitical and internal perspectives; 3. The empire in a comparative global context, 1815-1914; 4. The myth of 'gentlemanly capitalism'; Part II. Ethics and Religion: 5. Peter Peckard, 'universal benevolence', and the abolition of the slave trade; 6. The view from below: the African response to missionaries; Part III. Bureaucracy and Policy-making: 7. Bureaucracy and trusteeship in the colonial empire; 8. Africa and the Labour government, 1945-51; 9. John Bennett and the end of empire; Part IV. Great Men: 10. Winston Churchill's first years in ministerial office, 1905-11; 11. Churchill and the colonial empire; 12. Smuts in context: Britain and South Africa; Part V. Sexuality: 13. Empire and sexual opportunity; 14. Penis envy and 'penile othering' in the colonies and America; 15. Concubinage and the Colonial Service: Silberrad and the Crewe Circular (1909); 16. Greek love in British India: Captain Searight's manuscript; Part VI. Imperial Historians: 17. Imperial and Commonwealth history at Cambridge, 1881-1981: founding fathers and pioneer research students; 18. The Oxford and Cambridge imperial history professoriate, 1919-81: Robinson and Gallagher and their predecessors; Published writings of Ronald Hyam on imperial history.