''The Cambridge History of the British Empire'' was a major work of historical scholarship published in eight volumes between 1929 and 1961 by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...

. Volume seven was divided into two parts. The general editors were John Holland Rose, A. P. Newton and Ernest Alfred Benians. The original set of eight volumes was issued between 1929 and 1936. A number of the volumes were reissued in revised and expanded editions. The work appeared during a period of transition from 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 ...

to the

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

and the position of the United Kingdom with respect to its colonies was very different by the time the last volume appeared in 1959 to what it had been in 1929. This was reflected in reaction to the later volumes and the

historiographical 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 hav ...

approaches taken. Eric Walker's second edition of the South Africa volume in 1963, for instance, was criticised for using an outdated approach and the series is currently out of print. ''The Cambridge Illustrated History of the British Empire'', a one-volume work edited by P. J. Marshall, was published in 1996 but that also is out of print. Historian and critic of the British Empire

Caroline Elkins Caroline Elkins (American, born Caroline Fox, 1969) is Professor of History and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, the Thomas Henry Carroll/Ford Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School ...

, has described the history as promoting a teleological

Whig history Whig history (or Whig historiography) is an approach to historiography that presents history as a journey from an oppressive and benighted past to a "glorious present". The present described is generally one with modern forms of liberal democracy ...

of the British Empire that minimises, ignores or explains away the role of violence in expanding and maintaining the British Empire.

Volumes

* Volume I: * Volume II: * Volume III: * Volume IV: Doubled as volume V of '' The Cambridge History of India.'' * Volume V: Doubled as volume VI of '' The Cambridge History of India.'' * Volume VI: * Volume VII Part 1: Reissued in unaltered form in 1988 for the Australian Bicentenary. * Volume VII Part 2: * Volume VIII: Second edition (1963) edited by Eric A. Walker.

References

History of the British Empire Historiography of the British Empire

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Cambridge History of the British Empire ''The Cambridge History of the British Empire'' was a major work of historical scholarship published in eight volumes between 1929 and 1961 by Cambridge University Press. Volume seven was divided into two parts. The general editors were John Holla ...

{{UK-hist-book-stub

Volumes

See also

References