The Rise and Fall of the British Empire Quotes

“This coup de main gave Morgan the means to make himself a Jamaican planter
and to secure a knighthood, respectability and the governorship of the colony. It
also, like Drake’s similar exploits a hundred years before, made a deep impression
on the public imagination and reinforced that popular image of distant lands as
places where quick fortunes were waiting for the energetic and ruthless.”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

“One thing was clear to the ministers and civil servants who framed these policies: Britain’s colonies and the new transatlantic commerce they were generating were a vital national asset to be coveted, protected and extended, if necessary by aggression.”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

“a revealing”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

“Cleon, who, in the fifth century BC, had reminded the citizens of another imperial power, Athens, that ‘a democracy is incapable of empire’. ‘Your empire’, he continued, ‘is a despotism and your subjects disaffected conspirators, whose obedience is ensured not by your suicidal concessions,”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

“Later, when a political break with Britain seemed unavoidable, Franklin was distressed by its possible cultural repercussions for him and his countrymen. Would they be cut off for ever from Shakespeare?”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

“History cannot be unwritten or written in the subjunctive, and the wholesale application of late twentieth-century values distorts the past and makes it less comprehensible.”
― Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire