Envisioning Empire: The New British World from 1763 to 1773

(Paperback)

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Examining the pivotal period between the end of the Seven Years War and the dawn of the American Revolution, Envisioning Empire reinterprets the development of the British Empire in the 18th century. With exceptional geographical scope, this book provides new ways of understanding the actors and events in many imperial arenas, including West Africa, North America, the Caribbean, and South Asia. While 1763 has long been seen as marking a turning point in British and British-colonial history, Envisioning Empire treats this epochal year, and the decade that followed, as constituting a discrete moment in Imperial history that is significant in its own right. Exploring the programs and plans that sought to incorporate the vast new territories and millions of new subjects into the British state and imperial system, it demonstrates how the period between the end of the Seven Years War and the beginning of the American Revolution was one of contested ideas about the future of British overseas expansion. By examining these competing imperial visions and designs from the perspective of Britains new subjects as well as from that of British ministers, Envisioning Empire both illuminates and complicates the boundaries that have been drawn between the first and second British empires and reveals how the Empire was being conceived, discussed, and debated during an era of rapid transformation.

Reviews

A collective work of seminal scholarship, Envisioning Empire is unreservedly recommended, especially for college and university library 18th Century History collections and supplemental studies lists. * Midwest Booke Review *
This important collection of essays ranges across the globe to illuminate key debates about the greatly enlarged and much more variegated British empire that emerged in the decade after the end of the Seven Years War. The various contributions, by established scholars and early career historians, add up to a rich feast for anyone wanting to know more about 18th-century Britain and its empire. * Stephen Conway, Professor of History, UCL, University of London, UK *

Author Bio

James M. Vaughn is Assistant Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin, USA. He is the author of The Politics of Empire at the Accession of George III (2019). Robert A. Olwell is Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin, USA. He is the author of Masters, Slaves, and Subjects (1998).