Introduction – Making Connections: John Darwin and his Histories of Empire

This book is offered as a tribute to John Darwin’s contribution to our understanding of the history of empire and its endings. To mark the occasion of John’s retirement from teaching at Nuffield College and in the History Faculty at the University of Oxford, in the articles that follow former students and colleagues seek to draw on some of his ideas and insights and apply them to new areas. Working in quite disparate fields, all of the contributors take John’s writings as a starting point for fresh research, showing how they continue to shape and lead enquiry across a wide range of areas and eras.