The Cambridge History of the British Empire
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The Cambridge History of the British Empire was a major work of historical scholarship published in eight volumes between 1929 and 1961 by Cambridge University Press. Volume seven was divided into two parts. The general editors were John Holland Rose, A. P. Newton and Ernest Alfred Benians. The original set of eight volumes was issued between 1929 and 1936. A number of the volumes were reissued in revised and expanded editions.
The work appeared during a period of transition from the British Empire to the British Commonwealth and the position of the United Kingdom with respect to its colonies was very different by the time the last volume appeared in 1959 to what it had been in 1929. This was reflected in reaction to the later volumes and the historiographical approaches taken. Eric Walker's second edition of the South Africa volume in 1963, for instance, was criticised for using an outdated approach
{{Cite ODNB|id=94128|title=Walker, Eric Anderson|first=Christopher|last=Saunders}} and the series is currently out of print. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire, a one-volume work edited by P. J. Marshall, was published in 1996 but that also is out of print.
Historian Caroline Elkins has described the work as promoting a teleological Whig history of the British Empire that minimises, ignores or explains away the role of violence in expanding and maintaining the British Empire.{{Cite book |last=Elkins |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3icqEAAAQBAJ |title=Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire |date=2022 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday |isbn=978-0-593-32008-2 |pages=310 |language=en}}
Volumes
- Volume I: {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.508933|title=The Old Empire From The Beginnings To 1783|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1929|editor-last=Rose|editor-first=John Holland|editor-link=John Holland Rose|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|volume=I|editor-last2=Newton|editor-first2=A. P.|editor-link2=A. P. Newton|editor-last3=Benians|editor-first3=Ernest Alfred|editor-link3=Ernest Alfred Benians}}
- Volume II: {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.20687|title=The Growth of the New Empire: 1783–1870|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1968|editor-last=Rose|editor-first=John Holland|editor-link=John Holland Rose|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|volume=II|orig-year=1940|editor-last2=Newton|editor-first2=A. P.|editor-link2=A. P. Newton|editor-last3=Benians|editor-first3=Ernest Alfred|editor-link3=Ernest Alfred Benians}}
- Volume III: {{Cite book|title=The Empire-Commonwealth: 1870–1919|editor-last=Benians|editor-first=Ernest Alfred|editor-link=Ernest Alfred Benians|editor-last2=Butler|editor-first2=J. R. M.|editor-link2=J. R. M. Butler|editor-last3=Mansergh|editor-first3=P. N. S.|editor-link3=Nicholas Mansergh|volume=III|year=1959|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory0003unse_l9o9|editor-first4=E. A.|editor-link4=Eric A. Walker (historian)|editor-last4=Walker|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
- Volume IV: {{Cite book|title=British India: 1497–1858|editor-last=Dodwell|editor-first=H. H.|editor-link=H. H. Dodwell|volume=IV|year=1929|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.142926|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} Doubled as volume V of The Cambridge History of India.
- Volume V: {{Cite book|title=The Indian Empire: 1858–1918|editor-last=Dodwell|editor-first=H. H.|editor-link=H. H. Dodwell|volume=V|year=1932|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgehistory035143mbp|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} Doubled as volume VI of The Cambridge History of India.
- Volume VI: {{Cite book|title=Canada and Newfoundland|editor-last=Rose|editor-first=John Holland|editor-link=John Holland Rose|editor-last2=Newton|editor-first2=A. P.|editor-link2=A. P. Newton|editor-last3=Benians|editor-first3=Ernest Alfred|editor-link3=Ernest Alfred Benians|volume=VI|year=1930|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81770|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}{{Cite journal |last=Brown |first=George W. |date=1931 |title=Review of The Cambridge History of the British Empire |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1871726 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=296–299 |issn=0022-2801}}
- Volume VII Part 1: {{Cite book|title=Australia|editor-last=Rose|editor-first=J. Holland|editor-link=John Holland Rose|volume=VII Part I|editor-last2=Newton|editor-first2=A. P.|editor-link2=A. P. Newton|editor-last3=Benians|editor-first3=Ernest Alfred|editor-link3=Ernest Alfred Benians|year=1933|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSY9AAAAIAAJ|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} Reissued in unaltered form in 1988 for the Australian Bicentenary.{{Cite web|title=Australia: A Reissue of Volume VII, Part I of the Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://www.cambridge.org/ve/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/australia-reissue-volume-vii-part-i-cambridge-history-british-empire-volume-7-part-1|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160405221104/https://www.cambridge.org/ve/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/australia-reissue-volume-vii-part-i-cambridge-history-british-empire-volume-7-part-1|archive-date=5 April 2016|access-date=3 October 2021|website=Cambridge University Press}}
- Volume VII Part 2: {{Cite book|title=New Zealand|editor-last=Rose|editor-first=John Holland|editor-link=John Holland Rose|volume=VII Part II|editor-last2=Newton|editor-first2=A. P.|editor-link2=A. P. Newton|editor-last3=Benians|editor-first3=Ernest Alfred|editor-link3=Ernest Alfred Benians|year=1933|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSY9AAAAIAAJ|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
- Volume VIII: {{Cite book|title=South Africa, Rhodesia and the Protectorates|editor-last=Newton|editor-first=A. P.|editor-link=A. P. Newton|volume=VIII|editor-last2=Benians|editor-first2=Ernest Alfred|editor-link2=Ernest Alfred Benians|year=1936|series=The Cambridge History of the British Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.8073|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} Second edition (1963) edited by Eric A. Walker.
See also
References
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{{Cambridge History series}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambridge History of the British Empire, The}}
Category:History of the British Empire
Category:Historiography of the British Empire
Cambridge History of the British Empire
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