The Rise and Fall of the British Empire Paperback – September 15, 1997

A book with so ambitious a title as "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" holds much promise for the reader. Visions of 1000+ page tomes come to mind. After all, there is a lot of time and history involved with so monumental a subject. But James' account of what was arguably the greatest cultural, economic, and social force the world has ever known--the British empire--delivers solidly on that promise with clarity and brevity.I won't mince words. The book is short for so massive a subject. But James executes it well. Some passages and accounts are agonizingly brief, of course, but the purpose of the book is not to delve deeply into the minutiae of the Empire's history. It provides a fairly elementary overview of the important events that unfolded to shape the Empire, painting an elegant background picture of the sheer scope and impact of imperialism.Yes, pivotal situations, political turmoil, and wars are often glossed over, replaced by "big picture" statements or sweeping extrapolations and conclusions. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. The book's focus is decidely on the causes and effects of various events, and their place in the vast course of history that the Empire occupied. Events are covered in enough detail to allow James to continue his "big picture" story, but not in enough to detail to satiate an interested scholar.Thus, the book is a fantastic background for anybody who is either completely unversed in English imperial history, or for readers wanting solid background knowledge to accomodate further, more detailed readings. But, as a background, this book is incredibly detailed. The book's accounts span some 400 years of British history, in which the nation evolved from a fairly mediocre European island power into one of the most dynamic and influential economic and military machines that the world has ever known. The people, the events, and the stories that contributed to this rise to power are all brought to live with stunning truth through James' writing. The book is divided into clear, understandable chapters that are well-written and researched.James does not force didactic revisionist theories on us. He presents a clear, eloquent, interesting, and objective account of the British Empire, and leaves the reader with a deep and poigant understanding of the implications of the Empire's history.This is an absolute must for not only those new to British history, but for the learned scholar who seeks a well-rounded, intriguing look into the vast span of Britain's imperial history.

Although Lawrence James's opinions leak out a little as he deals with recent decades, this book covers the 400 years of British pre-eminence in the world with great discipline. It concentrates on what the British did (and why) without confusing the reader with unnecessary histories of other countries.Emerging from the 650 pages of this book is the truth of how the Empire came about, and why it was inevitable and necessary that it should be dissolved. The legacy of the British Empire to the world in terms of culture, government and social structure are patiently chronicled.The insights into British public opinion throughout the period of Empire by the analysis of newspapers, novels (and childrens' books) and movies were very interesting.This is the sort of book that can be read selectively and as such would be an ideal text book for education in schools around the world, or at least in the countries that were directly effected by the subject matter.The book has the capacity to make one want to talk at length about the rich topic of the Empire. Consequently I must stop (!), but I would encourage anyone who wants to know how the world arrived at its current form, to read this book.

The British colonial system first really got going in a big way with their colonies in the West Indies and North America in the early 1600’s. American schoolchildren typically don’t learn much about the British Empire after our clash with them during the War of 1812. Anybody lucky enough to have a chance to study the history of the world in the twentieth century may encounter it again at about the time most of Britain’s other colonies were finally obtaining their independence. Otherwise, what most of us know of the British Empire consists of the names of a handful of men (i.e. Captain Cook) and a couple of wars (the Boer War, etc.).Lawrence James attempts to fill in some of that empty space with this book. I learned some things I had not thought much about before. For example, he gives some of the reasons for founding colonies in the first place (it was to make money – duh!) and the means used to make money from the colonies in the 1600’s and 1700’s. I have read several massive volumes of American History over the past three or four years, and only one of them covered this aspect of colonialism in any detail – a shame because it explains so much of what happened at the end.I also had not thought much about the more far-flung reaches of the British Empire and how long many of these places had been British colonies. They were involved in India almost as early as they were establishing colonies in North America, and were fighting small (and sometimes larger) wars there frequently for centuries.The British Empire went on for so long and in so many places that no single book can do much more than hit the highlights of the story. There are necessarily some dry spots in this work, but on the whole, considering the scope and sometimes messy nature of the story it had to tell, it was generally clear and informative, if not always exactly entertaining.