Oxford History of the British Empire: Origins of Empire: British Overseas Enterprise to the Close of the Seventeenth Century v.1: Origins of Empire: British ... the Close of the Seventeenth Century Vol 1

£18.94

Joined-up history - The ambitious armchair historian should always be on the lookout for opportunities to graduate away from coffee-table glosses, but checking out the original research is difficult, time-consuming and, well, dull. What we need more of are half-way house books: collections of essays and review articles by professional historians about related topics that give us slightly more information than we need. It was a pleasure therefore to stumble on this series, and in particular this first volume. I doubt if I am alone in tending to compartmentalise later Tudor and Stuart history. The blast furnace, the defeat of the Armada, the Pilgrim Fathers and Pocahontas, Captain Morgan, Wexford and Glencoe don’t immediately seem to have much to do with each other, but this book shows how they are all intimately connected. I bet you didn’t realise that it was sugar, tobacco and opportunities in New England that kept Southern Ireland from having the same ethnic mix as the North now has. The book isn’t perfect. The quality of the writing is mixed. Some of the essays are heavy going. But if you want a better understanding of this formative period I recommend making the effort and reading it through. (Volume 2 is good too, but more about that elsewhere.)

• The Oxford History of the British Empire: Eighteenth Century v.2: Eighteenth Century Vol 2
• The Oxford History of the British Empire: Nineteenth Century v.3: Nineteenth Century Vol 3
• The Oxford History of the British Empire: Twentieth Century v.4: Twentieth Century Vol 4
• American Colonies: The Settlement of North America to 1800 (Penguin History of the United States)
• The Oxford History of the British Empire: Historiography v.5: Historiography Vol 5