The Evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth From the American Revolution

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Boston: D.C. Heath & Co., 1965. — 950 р.I have attempted to explain a subject that is admittedly much too largeand complicated to be mastered by anyone in a whole lifetime. It beganto intrigue me forty-five years ago, when I was a student of thelate Professor Egerton and lived in daily contact with other studentsdrawn to Oxford from all over the empire. It provided the theme ofmy first book, which came out as I "went down, " and it has been amajor interest ever since.The present volume begins with the success of the American Revolutionbecause this has had an enormous and far-reaching effect on theevolution of the British Empire. I have sought to present this evolutionas an organic whole, arranged around dominant ideas and forces,rather than as a collection of unrelated episodes. Personalities, howeverinteresting in themselves, have been kept to a minimum; and soalso have the details of internal history of each part of the empire.As no man can really understand his own country until he looks atit from the outside, nor understand another country until he somehowgets inside it, I have tried to combine both views in this account ofwhat has happened to the British Empire since the thirteen coloniesbroke away from it.I am indebted to so many scholars and friends for help in writingthis book that a list of them would fill another. To all those who haveread portions of the manuscript, I give my special thanks.