ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I shall turn to the image of decline and fall and the ways in which this image was used in the context of British imperialism, particularly in the Edwardian period. During the late Victorian and Edwardian period a range of writers drew attention to Edward Gibbon’s account of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon’s work was often drawn upon in the context of the current state of Britain’s imperial possessions. This chapter will focus on Edwardian attempts to define the problems faced by the British through a consideration of the comparison of the contemporary British Empire with the decline and fall of Rome.
