1st Edition

Greater Britain, 1516–1776 Essays in Atlantic History

By David Armitage Copyright 2004
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    Greater Britain, 1516-1776 brings together a series of studies by David Armitage on the history of the early modern British Atlantic world. The essays examine the history of the Britain and its empire from the 16th century to the 18th and place special emphasis on the intellectual histories of the Three Kingdoms of Britain and Ireland in their Atlantic context. They range in time from the Reformation to the American Revolution and treat not only the forces that encouraged the growth of the first British Empire but also the anxieties that constrained it. All are placed in a wider context of the relations among the Three Kingdoms, Europe and the British Empire from the middle ages to the late eighteenth century. Taken together, they offer an account of the ideological history of the anglophone Atlantic world which will be of use to historians of Britain, the British Empire and colonial America, as well as to literary critics and historians of political thought.

    Contents: Introduction; Part 1 The Historiography of Greater Britain: Greater Britain: a useful category of historical analysis?; Three concepts of Atlantic history; The New World and British historical thought: from Richard Hakluyt to William Robertson. Part 2 Languages of Empire: Literature and empire; The Cromwellian Protectorate and the languages of empire; John Milton: poet against empire; Empire and liberty: a republican dilemma. Part 3 Scotland, Ireland and Greater Britain: Making the empire British: Scotland in the Atlantic world 1542-1707; The political economy of Britain and Ireland after the Glorious Revolution; The Scottish vision of empire: intellectual origins of the Darien venture. Part 4 The Rise and Fall of Greater Britain: A patriot for whom? The afterlives of Bolingbroke's patriot king; The British conception of empire in the 18th century; The American Revolution: the last war of religion?; Index.

    Biography

    David Armitage is Professor in the Department of History, Harvard University,USA

    '... this volume bears witness to the uniqueness of the British Atlantic... Armitage shows that right from the beginning the Anglo-American Atlantic was not only an empire of trade, migration and services, but also an empire of minds.' Itinerario 'Overall, with this collection Armitage has provided a compelling and thought-provoking set of essays... This compilation will be especially important for students and researchers alike who wish to gain a greater understanding of the complex nature of Atlantic studies, as it is particularly valuable to have such a diverse collection of essays in a single volume.' Sixteenth Century Journal