Summary
Roberts describes the range of Britain's imperial obligations as revealed through parliamentary answers given by ministers in August 1914 to questions about tribal customs in Assam, press freedom in Lahore, Coptic newspapers in Egypt, the South African Native Land Act, Maasai cattle in British East Africa, taxation in the Malay states and the Anglo-Persian oil Company Bill. The retreat from Mons in the First World War, Dunkirk and Pearl Harbor during the second World War, the North Korean attack in 1950 all, he argues, show a common pattern at work: "The English-speaking peoples have often suffered reverses in the first battle ... before going on to ultimate victory."
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Extract
A Very English Affair
From London to Canberra and Washington, DC, anglophone culture dominated the 2oth century. Hywel Williams celebrates a provocative history of conquest and empire A very English affair A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, Andrew Roberts, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 736pp, £25
Of the various schools of historical thought that have tried to explain their...See the full content of this document
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