''The Oxford History of the British Empire'' is a five-volume history of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

published by the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 1998 and 1999. According to the publisher, the series "deals with the interaction of British and non-western societies from the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

to the late twentieth century, aiming to provide a balanced treatment of the ruled as well as the rulers, and to take into account the significance of the Empire for the peoples of the British Isles". The editor-in-chief for the main series was Wm. Roger Louis. In addition to the principal five volumes, the ''Oxford History of the British Empire'' also includes a spin-off "Companion Series" which "pursue themes that could not be covered adequately in the main series". 16 volumes have been published in the series since 2004.

Volumes

The Main Series

The ''Oxford History of the British Empire'' comprises five

edited volume An edited volume or edited collection is a collection of scholarly or scientific chapters written by different authors. The chapters in an edited volume are original works (not republished works). Alternative terms for edited volume are ''contrib ...

s, tracing the history of the British Empire in a chronological manner: *Volume I: ''The Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century''. 1998. Editor: Nicholas Canny. *Volume II: ''The Eighteenth Century''. 1998. Editor: P.J. Marshall. *Volume III: ''The Nineteenth Century''. 1999. Editor: Andrew Porter. *Volume IV: ''The Twentieth Century''. 1999. Editors: Judith M. Brown and Wm. Roger Louis. *Volume V: ''Historiography''. 1999. Editor:

Robin W. Winks Robin W. Winks (December 5, 1930 in Indiana – April 7, 2003 in New Haven, Connecticut) was an American academic, historian, diplomat, writer on the subject of fiction, especially detective novels, and advocate for the National Parks. After j ...

The "Companion Series"

Besides the main series, the ''Oxford History of the British Empire (Companion Series)'' addresses a range of specific thematic or regional issues which fell outside the scope of the general volumes. They are mixed between monographs and edited volumes. Published from 2004, the series includes: *''Ireland and the British Empire''. 2004. Editor:

Kevin Kenny Kevin Kenny (born 3 April 1961) is an English former professional darts player who played for England and Merseyside. Career Kenny received 12 caps for England, winning 11 times, and 116 caps for Merseyside, winning 92. He was also a two tim ...

. *''Black Experience and the Empire''. 2004. Editors: Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins. *''Gender and Empire''. 2004. Editor: Philippa Levine. *''Missions and Empire''. 2005. Editor: Norman Etherington. *''Environment and Empire''. 2007. Authors: William Beinart and

Lotte Hughes Lotte may refer to: Businesses * Lotte Corporation Lotte Corporation (or Lotte Group) is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation, and the fifth-largest chaebol in South Korea. Lotte began its history on June 28, 1948, by ...

. *''Australia's Empire''. 2008. Editors: Deryck Schreuder and Stuart Ward. *''Canada and the British Empire''. 2010. Editor: Phillip Buckner. *''Settlers and Expatriates: Britons over the Seas''. 2010. Editor:

Robert Bickers Robert A. Bickers (born 1964) is a British historian of modern China and colonialism. He is currently a professor of history at the University of Bristol. Bickers is the author of six books and editor or co-editor of three more. Biography Born ...

. *''Migration and Empire''. 2010. Authors: Marjory Harper and Stephen Constantine. *''Scotland and the British Empire''. 2011. Editors: John M. MacKenzie and T. M. Devine. *''Britain's Experience of Empire in the Twentieth Century''. 2011. Editor: Andrew Thompson. *''India and the British Empire''. 2012. Editors: Douglas M. Peers and Nandini Gooptu. *''British North America in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries''. 2013. Editor:

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and minstrel music during the Romantic period. He wrote more than 200 songs, inc ...

*''Winding up the British Empire in the Pacific Islands''. 2014. Author: W. David McIntyre. *''Architecture and Urbanism in the British Empire''. 2016. Editor: G. A. Bremner. *''Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail''. 2021. Editors: Douglas Hamilton and John McAleer.

Reviews

Max Beloff Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, (2 July 1913 – 22 March 1999) was a British historian and Conservative peer. From 1974 to 1979 he was principal of the University College of Buckingham, now the University of Buckingham. Early life Beloff was born ...

, reviewing the first two volumes in ''

History Today ''History Today'' is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and pub ...

'', praised them for their readability and was pleased that his worry that they would be too anti-imperialist had not been realised.

Saul Dubow Saul H. Dubow, (born 28 October 1959) is a South African historian and academic, specialising in the history of South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Since 2016, he has been the Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the U ...

H-Net __NOTOC__ H-Net ("Humanities & Social Sciences Online") is an interdisciplinary forum for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. It is best known for hosting electronic mailing lists organized by academic disciplines; according to the o ...

noted the uneven quality of the chapters in volume III and also the difficulty of such an endeavour given the state of

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

of the British Empire and the impossibility of maintaining a triumphalist tone in the modern era. Dubow also felt that some of the authors had tended "to 'play safe', awed perhaps by the monumental nature of the enterprise". Madhavi Kale of

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, writing in '' Social History'', also felt that the history took a traditional approach to the historiography of the empire and placed the English, and to a lesser extent the Scottish, Irish and Welsh at the centre of the account, rather than the subject peoples of the empire. Kale summed up her review of volumes III–V of the history by saying it represented "a disturbingly revisionist project that seeks to neutralize ... the massive political and military brutality and repression" of the empire.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oxford History of the British Empire 1998 non-fiction books 1999 non-fiction books Series of history books Historiography of the British Empire Oxford University Press books

Volumes

The Main Series

The "Companion Series"

Reviews

See also

References