Volume II: The Eighteenth Century

Volume II of The Oxford History of the British Empire examines the history of British worldwide expansion from the Glorious Revolution of 1689 to the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a crucial phase in the creation of the modern British Empire. This is the age of General Wolfe, Clive of India, and Captain Cook. An international team of experts deploy the latest scholarly research to trace and analyze development and expansion over more than a century. They show how trade, warfare, and migration created an Empire, at first overwhelmingly in the Americas but later increasingly in Asia. Although the Empire was ruptured by the American Revolution, it survived and grew into the British Empire that was to dominate the world during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Series Blurb The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. From the founding of colonies in North America and the West Indies in the seventeenth century to the reversion of Hong Kong to China at the end of the twentieth, British imperialism was a catalyst for far-reaching change. The Oxford History of the British Empire as a comprehensive study allows us to understand the end of Empire in relation to its beginnings, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. Contributors to this volume - P. J. Marshall, Emeritus Professor of Imperial History, University of London James Horn, Head of School of Historical and Critical Studies, University of Brighton Patrick K. O'Brien, Director of the Institute for Historical Research, University of London Jacob M. Price, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Ian K. Steele, Professor of History, University of Western Ontario Boyd Stanley Schlenther, Reader in History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth Bruce P. Lenman, Professor of History, University of St Andrews N. A. M. Rodger, Anderson Fellow of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Michael Duffy, Senior Lecturer in History and Director of the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies, University of Exeter Jack P. Greene, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, The John Hopkins University, Baltimore Richard Drayton, Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford Thomas Bartlett, Professor of Modern Irish History, University College, Dublin Richard R. Johnson, Professor of History, University of Washington, Seattle John Shy, Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Stephen Conway, Reader in History, University College London Daniel K. Richter, Associate Professor of History, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvannia Peter Marshall, former Professor of American History and Institutions, University of Manchester Richard B. Sheridan, Professor Emeritus, University of Kansas J. R. Ward, Lecturer in Social and Economic History, University of Edinburgh David Richardson, Reader in Economic History, University of Hull Philip D. Morgan, Professor of History, Florida State University Rajat Kanta Ray, Professor and Head of Department of History, Presidency College, Calcutta J. V. Bowen, Senior Lecturer in Economic and Social History, University of Leicester Glyndwr Williams, Professor of History at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London