LLOYD:BRITISH EMPIRE 1558-1995 2ND EDITION SOHMW PAPER

by Trevor Owen Lloyd

This is a comprehensive survey of the entire history of the British empire. Lloyd describes the full sweep of expansion and decolonization from the voyages of discovery in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to the achievement of independence in the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing out both parallels and differences between paths of development throughout the empire, Lloyd provides a unified and coherent account of a vital period in the history of all the countries that make up the modern Commonwealth. For the second edition, he has revised the text, updated the bibliography and tables, and added a final chapter on "The World after the Empire", which examines the important contemporary events countries of the former empire, such as South Africa, Canada, Hong Kong, and Australia.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

471 pages, Paperback

First published September 13, 1984

Reviews

[David Grobgeld]

This was a real slog -- I couldn't finish it and gave up after a hundred pages. It falls into a trap that I have experienced with some other badly written general histories; it's too general for readers that already have a basic understanding of the empire, but requires prior knowledge of the subject to be intelligeble to an extent that makes it totally inappropriate as an introduction. The result is an unrelentingly tedious experience that had my eyes constantly glazing over and me finding myself endlessly rereading paragraphs until I finally accepted after a third of the book that I had neither learned anything new, nor discovered any new connections between things I already knew.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, a lot of info packed into this book, but hard to read. Mostly due to lack of commas and paragraphs, I think. That, and it was all FACTS, FACTS, FACTS. Usually, I'm a pretty fast reader (as in I can finish a 300 page book in a couple of hours), but this one took me hours and hours and hours. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more "flow" to it, but...that said, it served its purpose. I did learn.