ABSTRACT
The last fifty years have seen profound changes in Britain’s econom y and society as well as her role in the world. W inning the war and losing the empire are the most immediately striking developments in the period; but adjusting to peace time conditions and recoupling Britain w ith continental Europe are themes w hich are no less significant for being protracted and, in some respects, still incomplete. The m ountain o f commentary produced by these events ideally requires an evalu ation o f matching size. H owever, the main purpose o f the present study is to explain the expansion o f empire not its demise; consequently, the events o f the post-War era, though a fascinating and im portant extension o f our story, are not central to its main argument. At the same time, we recognise that the interpreta tion we have put forward carries implications for understanding the course o f recent British history, and hence has a direct bearing on the analysis o f con temporary issues. T o avoid these matters entirely w ould be an unnecessary and perhaps a misleading act o f discretion because, as we shall suggest, the gentlemanly interests which sustained the empire dow n to W orld W ar II also managed and to some extent planned its demise thereafter. Exactly w hy the relationship changed is a complex matter which we shall approach from the particular standpoint adopted in this study, though in summary fashion. As w ith the historical prologue survey ing the eighteenth century, our object at this point is less to prove a thesis than to suggest how it m ight be constructed.
