This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in what the empire and its loss meant to Britain in the twentieth centuryand, indeed, what it continues to mean today. Andrew Thompson and his contributors provide a wide-ranging, well-balanced, and highly illuminating assessment of the subject. It will engage and inform specialists, students, and general readers alike
Dane Kennedy, George Washington University
Britain's Experience of Empire is an important volume. It is thorough, accessible, and presents the first collected study of the impact of empire upon Britain's twentieth century. Moreover, in grappling with the effect upon Britain not only as being, but also of having been, an imperial power this book becomes part of the history it intends to write. It presents a thoughtful and balanced survey of a subject that inspires regular and impassioned debate. As such, Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century should be welcomed alike by those within, and outside, the academy.
Emily Baughan, Twentieth Century British History
This companion volume to The Oxford History of the British Empire series is a valuable contribution to the growing field of imperial and postimperial studies. It provides a detailed examination of how the empire was experienced in 20th-century Britain, how and why it mattered, the demands it made, and how it shaped the British world outlook.
G. M. Stearns, CHOICE
a very useful counter to those loud voices that fill the newspapers with confident and overly simple assertions of what the empire did or did not do to the British ... offers a way of thinking of imperialism in relational terms which might add a further dimension to debates concerning impact and influence.
Nicholas Owen, Journal of Contemporary History