Revolutionary Empire: The Rise of the English-Speaking Empire from the Fifteenth Century to the 1780s

by Angus Calder

Explores the early phases of British expansion both within the British Isles and overseas, interweaving the social and intellectual history of the English, Irish, Scottish, and colonial Americans

Genres: History

559 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 1981

About the author

Angus Lindsay Ritchie Calder was a Scottish academic, writer, historian, educator and literary editor with a background in English literature, politics and cultural studies.

He was a man of the Left, and in his influential book on the home front in the Second World War, The People's War (1969), he complained that the postwar reforms of the Labour government, such as universal health care and nationalization of some industries, were an inadequate reward for wartime sacrifices, and a cynical betrayal of the people's hope for a more just postwar society.

Other books include Revolutionary Empire (1981), The Myth of the Blitz (1991) and Revolving Culture: Notes from the Scottish Republic (1994).

Reviews

[Derick Ofodirinwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very important read for me, though extremely dense. If you're not into minutia, it may not be the book for you. I can't imagine another account of the British empire and it's impact on the modern world that's this comprehensive. Gives the reasoning, story and effect of every imaginable event and social trend in the British Empire, and I walked out with an entirely different perspective on how the modern world took it's current shape.