British Colonial History

Francis Hall's letters are among the earliest colonial record of daily life in British East Africa, now modern day Kenya. In 1892 Hall was posted to Fort Smith with orders to build 150 miles of road, to re-supply caravans between the coast and Uganda and to keep the peace between the Kikuyu and the Maasai. His was a hard life in difficult, dangerous conditions and every day was an adventure. He was gored by a rhino and mauled by a leopard, which he strangled with his rifle, and survived bush surgery and frequent bouts of malaria. While on leave in England he married Bee Russell, a ...

The History of Australia: From Indigenous Origins to a Modern Nation Australia is called the “land down under,” but how much do you really know about its past? Did you know that modern Australia started as a British prison colony? Or that for tens of thousands of years before that, Indigenous peoples lived there, building rich cultures and traditions? This book takes you through Australia’s history, from its first inhabitants to the arrival of European settlers to its fight for independence to its current role in world events. Learn about the convicts who built early settlements, the ...

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company’s ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II’s vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber...

The Most Wounded Warrior in British Military History Shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear. Survived two plane crashes. Tunneled out of a prisoner-of-war camp. Lost an eye and a hand, then pulled off his own mangled fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them. His response to it all? "Frankly, I enjoyed the war." A True Story That Defies Belief Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, VC lived through what should have killed him a dozen times over. This meticulously researched biography unveils the astounding true story of Britain's most decorated and wounded ...

This fascinating audiobook is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins. While most people in the United States today have no British ancestors, they have assimilated regional cultures which were created by British colonists, even while preserving ethnic identities at the same time.

In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War - long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution - takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain's empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution. Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration.

A Sweeping History Of British Columbia British Columbia defies easy summary. It is a place of staggering natural beauty and deep human contradiction — a province built on Indigenous land without treaty or consent, enriched by the labour of people it then tried to exclude, and shaped by conflicts between capital and workers that were fiercer here than almost anywhere else in Canada. It is also a place of genuine breakthrough: of land claims won after a century of struggle, of radical unions that changed what workers could demand, of environmental movements that began on a Vancouver ...

#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER 1920s Ceylon: A young Englishwoman marries a charming tea plantation owner and widower, only to discover he's keeping terrible secrets about his past, including what happened to his first wife, that lead to devastating consequences In this lush, atmospheric...

A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Company–which financed the settlement of Jamestown–David Price...

This series is written for non-Historians as a handy easy-to-read look at American History. It’s guaranteed to reveal to the average reader things about America’s story they don’t know. This first volume covers our Colonial History. It’s composed of short chapters each of which is designed to be a stand-alone treatment of a segment of time. It’s my hope that this book will contribute to our historical perspective the lack of which which I believe is a major factor in the current lack of appreciation for the uniqueness which is the United States of America.

Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.

“Searing…Jill Damatac tells the story of a fight for survival and culture in America.” —The New York Times “A fiercely honest, eye-opening view of one undocumented family’s experiences trying to start over in a new world.” —The San Francisco Chronicle In the style of Crying in H...

The Sunday Times Bestseller A new assessment of the West’s colonial record In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of History’ – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever. Now however, with...

In the dramatic few years when colonial Americans were galvanized to resist British rule, perhaps nothing did more to foment anti-British sentiment than the armed occupation of Boston. As If an Enemy's Country is Richard Archer's gripping narrative of those critical months between October 1, 1768 and the winter of 1770 when Boston was an occupied town.

Winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize Winner of the Longman History Today Trustees’ Award Longlisted for the Orwell Prize Unflinching and revealing, Black and British is a vital history that reveals how black British lives have been woven into the fabric of the nation for centuries – from...

Bestselling author and journalist Sathnam Sanghera explores the global legacy of the British Empire, and the ways it continues to influence economics, politics, and culture around the world. 2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire's influence upon the quarter of...

In the vein of Sound Man and The Soundtrack of My Life, a lyrical memoir from the founder of one of the greatest music labels of all time, Island Records, about his astonishing life and career helping to bring reggae music to the world stage and working with Bob Marley, U2, Grace Jones, Cat...

This volume in a series of world history case studies focuses on Scottish businessman Richard Oswald, a man who epitomized the inter-connectivity of the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century, as well as the horrors that unity produced. By establishing his own triangular trade with a slave station in Sierra Leone, a plantation in Florida, and an office in London, Oswald became a wealthy man who benefited from the misery of others. Because he also served as the chief British negotiator in the Peace of Paris (1783) that ended the American Revolution, Oswald's life also provides us with a ...

As Europe crumbles under the shadow of darkness, Nazar prepares to strike his deadliest blow yet. His legions of monstrous creatures and soldiers mass along the French coastline, poised to shatter the very heart of the British Victorian Empire. Across the Channel, Captain Charles Hayward, recovering from his last brutal battle, is desperate for word of his family. Though hope fades, his love for them becomes his driving force. Determined to buy precious time, Hayward leads a daring raid deep into enemy-occupied France, drawing on his hard-won experience against Nazar’s unholy forces. But ...

At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on...