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When the War of Independence ended in 1783, many doubted the ability of Americans to build a nation. Today the United States occupies a position comparable to that of Britain at the zenith of its power. Britain and America since Independence deals with Anglo-American relations in the widest sense. It shows how the transfer of hegemony from the British Empire to the United States affected the way Britons and Americans viewed one another, and its effect on the evolving social, economic and political connections between the two countries. Inspite of political separation, geographical distance, and intermittent periods of hostility, the British have never regarded Americans as 'foreigners'. Americans, in turn, have looked to Britain as the source of their language and culture. Nevertheless, as Howard Temperley shows in this far-ranging study of the two societies, these affinities have often given rise to misunderstanding and confusion - as in the current conflict between Britain's allegiance to the 'special relationship', and America's belief that the future of Britain lies in Europe.
When the War of Independence ended in 1783, many doubted the ability of Americans to build a nation. Today the United States occupies a position comparable to that of Britain at the zenith of its power. Britain and America since Independence deals with Anglo-American relations in the widest sense. It shows how the transfer of hegemony from the British Empire to the United States affected the way Britons and Americans viewed one another, and its effect on the evolving social, economic and political connections between the two countries. Inspite of political separation, geographical distance, and intermittent periods of hostility, the British have never regarded Americans as 'foreigners'. Americans, in turn, have looked to Britain as the source of their language and culture. Nevertheless, as Howard Temperley shows in this far-ranging study of the two societies, these affinities have often given rise to misunderstanding and confusion - as in the current conflict between Britain's allegiance to the 'special relationship', and America's belief that the future of Britain lies in Europe.
In How it Was Howard Temperley describes growing up at a time of expanding opportunity and rapid social change. Like others of his generation he experienced the poverty of the 1930s And The social dislocations of war. For him, however, The war proved a liberating experience. As an evacuee he spent three glorious years more or less running wild in the Lake District. Back in the urban North East and bored by schoolwork he took refuge in reading, drawing and wildfowling. it was, therefore, a great surprise when, halfway through his second Sixthform year and in spite of a hitherto mediocre school record, Oxford awarded him an open scholarship. In his later chapters he describes his adventures as an improbable cavalry officer, Oxford undergraduate and Yale postgraduate, touching along the way on his encounters with English snobbery and American affluence. With a sharp eye for detail and a gift for writing, he paints a vivid picture of what it was like to belong to that upwardly-mobile generation who, thanks To The 1944 Butler Act and other changes in social policy, were granted educational opportunities far greater than had been dreamed of by their parents
A New Introduction to American Studies provides a coherent portrait of American history, literature, politics, culture and society, and also deals with some of the central themes and preoccupations of American life. It will provoke students into thinking about what it actually means to study a culture. Ideals such as the commitment to liberty, equality and material progress are fully examined and new light is shed on the sometimes contradictory ways in which these ideals have informed the nation's history and culture. For introductory undergraduate courses in American Studies, American History and American Literature.
The abolition of slavery across large parts of the world was one of the most significant transformations in the nineteenth century, shaping economies, societies, and political institutions. This book shows how the international context was essential in shaping the abolition of slavery.
On the 150th anniversary of the death of the English historian and politician Thomas Babington Macaulay, Robert Sullivan offers a portrait of a Victorian life that probes the cost of power, the practice of empire, and the impact of ideas. His Macaulay is a Janus-faced master of the universe: a prominent spokesman for abolishing slavery in the British Empire who cared little for the cause, a forceful advocate for reforming Whig politics but a Machiavellian realist, a soaring parliamentary orator who avoided debate, a self-declared Christian, yet a skeptic and a secularizer of English history and culture, and a stern public moralist who was in love with his two youngest sisters. Perhaps best k...
After Britain abolished slavery throughout most of its empire in 1834, Victorians adopted a creed of "anti-slavery" as a vital part of their national identity and sense of moral superiority to other civilizations. The British government used diplomacy, pressure, and violence to suppress the slave trade, while the Royal Navy enforced abolition worldwide and an anxious public debated the true responsibilities of an anti-slavery nation. This crusade was far from altruistic or compassionate, but Richard Huzzey argues that it forged national debates and political culture long after the famous abolitionist campaigns of William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson had faded into memory. These anti-slave...
The proceedings of a conference on Caribbean slavery and British capitalism are recorded in this volume. Convened in 1984, the conference considered the scholarship of Eric Williams & his legacy in this field of historical research.
By the mid-eighteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was considered to be a necessary and stabilizing factor in the capitalist economies of Europe and the expanding Americas. Britain was the most influential power in this system which seemed to have the potential for unbounded growth. In 1833, the British empire became the first to liberate its slaves and then to become a driving force toward global emancipation. There has been endless debate over the reasons behind this decision. This has been portrayed on the one hand as a rational disinvestment in a foundering overseas system, and on the other as the most expensive per capita expenditure for colonial reform in modern history. In t...
In this series of penetrating and attractively readable essays, Stefan Collini explores aspects of the literary and intellectual culture of Britain from the early twentieth century to the present. Collini focuses on critics and historians who wrote for a non-specialist readership, and on the periodicals and other genres through which they attempted to reach that readership. Among the critics discussed are Cyril Connolly, V.S. Pritchett, Aldous Huxley, Rebecca West, Edmund Wilson, and George Orwell, while the historians include A.L. Rowse, Arthur Bryant, E.H. Carr, and E.P. Thompson. There are also essays on wider themes such as the fate of 'general' periodicals, the history of reading, the r...