The Discovery of Islands: Essays in British History
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition, 9/8/2005
EAN 9780521616454, ISBN10: 052161645X
Paperback, 358 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
The Discovery of Islands consists of a series of linked essays in British history, written by one of the world's leading historians of political thought and published over the past three decades. Its purpose is to present British history as that of several nations interacting with - and sometimes seceding from - an imperial state. The commentary presents this history as that of an archipelago, expanding across oceans to the Antipodes. Both New Zealand history and the author's New Zealand heritage inform this vision, presenting British history as oceanic and global, complementing (and occasionally criticising) the presentation of that history as European. Professor Pocock's interpretation of British history has been hugely influential in recent years, making The Discovery of Islands a resource of immense value for historians of Britain and the world.
Preface and acknowledgements
Part I. The Field Proposed
1. The Antipodean perception
2. British history
a plea for a new subject
Part II. The Three Kingdoms and the English Problem
3. The field enlarged
an introduction
4. Two kingdoms and three histories? Political thought in British contexts
5. The Atlantic archipelago and the War of the Three Kingdoms
6. The third kingdom in its history
Part III. Empire and Rebellion in the First Age of Union
7. Archipelago, Europe and Atlantic after 1688
8. The significance of 1688
some reflections on Whig history
9. Empire, state and confederation
the war of American independence as a crisis in multiple monarchy
10. The Union of 1801 in British history
Part IV. New Zealand in the Strange Multiplicity
11. The neo-Britains and the three empires
12. Tangata whenua and Enlightenment anthropology
13. Law, sovereignty and history in a divided culture
the case of New Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi
Part V. Britain, Europe and Post-Modern History
14. Sovereignty and history in the late twentieth century
15. Deconstructing Europe
16. The politics of the new British history
17. Conclusion
history, sovereignty, identity
Bibliographies
Index.