The Ideological Origins of the British Empire
The Ideological Origins of the British Empire
David Armitage presents the first comprehensive history of British conceptions of empire for half a century, tracing the emergence of British imperial identity from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. This book sheds new light on major British political thinkers, from Sir Thomas Smith to David Hume, by providing novel accounts of the "British problem" in the early modern period, of the relationship between Protestantism and empire, of theories of property, liberty and political economy in imperial perspective, and of the imperial contribution to the emergence of the British identity.
- Unique integration of history of Britain with history of British Empire
- Chronological sweep, from mid-sixteenth to mid-eighteenth century
- First book to integrate intellectual history with history of British Atlantic Empire
Reviews & endorsements
"Winner of the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award 2000"
"The ideological Orgins of the British Empire provides a learned and stimulating contribution to a number of areas of scholarly inquiry...compelling." Tearsheet From William and Mary Quarterly
The book triumphantly provides a very obvious answer: the aspirations and experiences of the people of the British Isle shaped concepts of empire." The International History Review Dec 2001
"All readers will have their favorite sections of this engaging book." Journal of Modern History
"Armitage (Columbia Univ.) used some 200 books published in the British Isles between 1550 and 1750, in addition to manuscripts in English and Scottish archives, as sources for this erudite study of the conceptual underpinning of the transatlantic "first British empire"." CHOICE March 2001
Product details
January 2005Adobe eBook Reader
9780511038983
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: state and empire in British history
- 2. The empire of Great Britain: England, Scotland and Ireland, c. 1542–1612
- 3. Protestantism and empire: Hakluyt, Purchas and property
- 4. The empire of the seas, 1576–1689
- 5. Liberty and empire
- 6. The political economy of empire
- 7. Empire and ideology in the Walpolean era.
