The Idea of Greater Britain
Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900
Chapter One
Introduction: Building Greater Britain
When we have accustomed ourselves to contemplate
the whole Empire together and call it England, we shall
see that here too is a United States. Here too is a
homogeneous people, one in blood, language, religion,
and laws, but dispersed over a boundless space.
-J. R. Seeley, The Expansion of England (1883)
A firm and well-compacted union
of all the British lands would form a state
that might control the whole world.
-Charles Oman, England in the Nineteenth
Century (1899)
The history of modern political thought is partly the history of the
attempt to confront increasing global interdependence and competition. The
Idea of Greater Britain focuses on an important but neglected aspect of
this chronicle: the debate over the potential union of the United Kingdom
with its so-called settler colonies-the lands we know now as Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, as well as parts of South ... read full excerpt from The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 ebook
