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A magisterial work of narrative history, hailed in Britain as "the best one-volume account of the British Empire" and "an outstanding book" (The Times Literary Supplement).After the American Revolution, the British Empire appeared to be doomed. But over the next 150 years it grew to become the greatest and most diverse empire the world has ever seen--ranging from Canada to Australia to China, India, and Egypt--seven times larger than the Roman Empire at its apogee. Britannia ruled the waves and a quarter of the earth.Yet it was also a fundamentally weak empire, as Piers Brendon shows in this vivid and sweeping chronicle. Run from a tiny island base, the British Empire operated on a shoestring with the help of local elites. It enshrined a belief in freedom that would fatally undermine its authority. Spread too thin, and facing wars, economic crises, and domestic discord, the empire would vanish almost as quickly as it appeared.Within a generation, the mighty structure collapsed, sometimes amid bloodshed. This rapid demise left unfinished business in Rhodesia, the Falklands, and Hong Kong. It left an array of dependencies and a ghost of an empire overshadowed by a rising America. Above all, it left a contested legacy: at best, a sporting spirit, a legal code, and a near-universal language; at worst, failed states and internecine strife.Brendon tells this story with brio and brilliance; covering a vast canvas, he fills it with vivid firsthand accounts of life in the colonies and intimate portraits of the sometimes eccentric British officials who administered them. It is all here--from brief lives to telling anecdotes to comic episodes to symbolic moments. Panoramic in scope and riveting in detail, this is narrative history at its finest.From the Hardcover edition.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Civilization, Colonies, Commonwealth (Organization), History, Imperialism, NonfictionPlaces
Commonwealth countries, Great BritainShowing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
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1
The decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2008, Alfred A. Knopf
in English
- 1st American ed.
0307268292 9780307268297
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2
The decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2008, New York
in English
- 1st American ed.
0307268292 9780307268297
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zzzz
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3
The decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2008, New York
in English
- 1st American ed.
0307268292 9780307268297
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4
The decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2008, New York
in English
- 1st American ed.
0307268292 9780307268297
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zzzz
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WorldCat
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5
The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2008, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Electronic resource
in English
0307270289 9780307270283
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6
The decline and fall of the British Empire, 1781-1997
2007, Jonathan Cape
in English
0224062220 9780224062220
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Maps on lining papers.
Includes bibliographical references, and index.
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- Created December 21, 2008
- 5 revisions
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August 19, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
December 15, 2009 | Edited by WorkBot | link works |
December 21, 2008 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from University of Toronto MARC record |