British Empire

The British Empire was the biggest and most successful of all the European empires. It had a truly global reach, the effects of which have been felt all over the world for centuries. But how does an operation that vast really operate? The British Empire: Sunrise to Sunset looks at the rise and fall of the Empire, its inner workings, and what it meant to those who carried it out as an enterprise, as well as those who lived under its authority. Philippa Levine moves well beyond traditional political, diplomatic and economic concerns to examine a wide variety of topics: the complex negotiations British officials had to make with local elites, policies on sexuality, displays of imperial manufacturing, technological innovations and much besides.

This second edition has been updated throughout to include brand new material on colonial immigration to Britain, and the aftermath of Empire in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Philippa Levine includes more material on migration, the abolition of slavery, and decolonisation and incorporates some of the latest scholarship, including recent debates about the nature of Empire in general and how the British Empire in particular compared to its rivals.

Levine’s book is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students taking classes on British Empire, European imperialism, and British history, and will also interest the general reader looking for a broad overview of British imperialism.

Philippa Levine is the Mary Helen Thompson Centennial Professor in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. A native of Britain, she is the author of a number of books about Britain and the Empire.