The ideological origins of the British Empire

259 Pages·2000·1.389 MB·English

by  Commonwealth;Armitage, David

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THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS
OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
TheIdeological Originsof theBritish Empirepresentsthefirst compre-
hensivehistoryofBritishconceptionsofempireformorethanhalf
acentury.DavidArmitagetracestheemergenceofBritishimperial
ideology from the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the
eighteenth century, using a full range of manuscript and printed
sources.BylinkingthehistoriesofEngland,ScotlandandIreland
withthehistoryoftheBritishEmpire,hedemonstratestheimport-
ance of ideology as an essential linking between the processes of
state-formationandempire-building.Thisbookshedsnewlighton
majorBritishpoliticalthinkers,fromSirThomasSmithtoDavid
Hume,byprovidingnovelaccountsofthe‘Britishproblem’inthe
early-modern period, of the relationship between Protestantism
andempire,oftheoriesofproperty,libertyandpoliticaleconomy
in imperial perspective, and of the imperial contribution to the
emergenceofBritish‘identities’intheAtlanticworld.
  isAssociateProfessorofHistoryatColumbia
University. He is the editor of Bolingbroke: Political Writings for
Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought () and
Theories of Empire – (), and co-editor (with Armand
HimyandQuentinSkinner)ofMiltonandRepublicanism().
IDEASINCONTEXT
EditedbyQUENTINSKINNER(GeneralEditor),LORRAINEDASTON,
DOROTHYROSSandJAMESTULLY
Thebooksinthisserieswilldiscusstheemergenceofintellectualtraditionsand
of related new disciplines. The procedures, aims and vocabularies that were
generated will be set in the context of the alternatives available within the
contemporaryframeworksofideasandinstitutions.Throughdetailedstudiesof
theevolutionofsuchtraditions,andtheirmodificationbydifferentaudiences,
it is hoped that a new picture will form of the development of ideas in their
concretecontexts.By thismeans,artificialdistinctionsbetweenthehistoryof
philosophy,ofthevarioussciences,ofsocietyandpolitics,andofliteraturemay
beseentodissolve.
TheseriesispublishedwiththesupportoftheExxonFoundation.
Alistofbooksintheserieswillbefoundattheendofthevolume.
   
THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS
OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
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THE
IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS
OF THE
BRITISH EMPIRE
DAVID ARMITAGE
ColumbiaUniversity
         
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
Ruiz de Alarcón 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain
Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa
http://www.cambridge.org
©David Armitage 2004
First published in printed format 2000
ISBN 0-511-03989-1 eBook (netLibrary)
ISBN 0-521-59081-7 hardback
ISBN 0-521-78978-8 paperback
For
DH,MRA,BGAandCFLA
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