Historical Dictionary of the British Empire
By (author) Kenneth J. Panton
Not available to order
Publication date:
07 May 2015Length of book:
766 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9780810875241
For much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain was the dominant world power, its strength based in large part on its command of an Empire that, in the years immediately after World War I, encompassed almost one-quarter of the earth’s land surface and one-fifth of its population. Writers boasted that the sun never set on British possessions, which provided raw materials that, processed in British factories, could be re-exported as manufactured products to expanding colonial markets. The commercial and political might was not based on any grand strategic plan of territorial acquisition, however. The Empire grew piecemeal, shaped by the diplomatic, economic, and military circumstances of the times, and its speedy dismemberment in the mid-twentieth century was, similarly, a reaction to the realities of geopolitics in post-World War II conditions. Today the Empire has gone but it has left a legacy that remains of great significance in the modern world.
The Historical Dictionary of the British Empire covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Britain.
The Historical Dictionary of the British Empire covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Britain.
Like his earlier coauthored dictionaries on the UK—Historical Dictionary of the United Kingdom, volumes 1 and 2—this volume by Panton is carefully researched, well written, and nicely presented. At over 100 pages, the bibliography is surely the most exhaustive ever found in such tomes. The two appendixes (listing secretaries of state of the colonies, along with a time line of the development of the Commonwealth) complement the entries. . . .Commendable...are the entries on the individual islands in the Pacific and the various tribal areas in southern Africa, as they are frequently overlooked in works of this nature. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates and general readers.