The book under review is intended to be ‘a general descriptive and explanatory history of British colonialism since the middle of the nineteenth century’. The study is not based on any original research, being an attempt to synthesize all existing historical material of which, in purely quantitative terms, there is no dearth. Neither does the book promise to solve, or even tackle, the complex issues which have been raised in the debates on imperialism. The aim, as the author explicitly states, ‘is to avoid biases by short circuiting most controversies.’ Such an approach forces the author at times to avoid important issues, at others to make contradictory or ambiguous statements.
July 1976, volume 1, No 3