Anthony Webster is Head of History at Edge Hill College of Higher Education

• 1. The British Empire: an enduring fascination2. Justifying British imperialism: the changing rationale of the empire builders3. Capitalism’s critics and defenders: early twentieth century economic explanations of Victorian British imperial expansion4. Metropole, periphery and informal empire: the Gallagher and Robinson controversy of the 1950s and after5. Cultural explanations of British imperialism I: post colonial theory and its critics6. Cultural explanations of British imperialism II: religion, race, gender and class7. The metropole strikes back: the new debate about gentlemanly capitalism and empire 1980-20048. The future of Britain’s imperial history?Further reading

Anthony Webster is Head of History at Edge Hill College of Higher Education

• 1. The British Empire: an enduring fascination2. Justifying British imperialism: the changing rationale of the empire builders3. Capitalism’s critics and defenders: early twentieth century economic explanations of Victorian British imperial expansion4. Metropole, periphery and informal empire: the Gallagher and Robinson controversy of the 1950s and after5. Cultural explanations of British imperialism I: post colonial theory and its critics6. Cultural explanations of British imperialism II: religion, race, gender and class7. The metropole strikes back: the new debate about gentlemanly capitalism and empire 1980-20048. The future of Britain’s imperial history?Further reading

Anthony Webster is Head of History at Edge Hill College of Higher Education

• 1. The British Empire: an enduring fascination2. Justifying British imperialism: the changing rationale of the empire builders3. Capitalism’s critics and defenders: early twentieth century economic explanations of Victorian British imperial expansion4. Metropole, periphery and informal empire: the Gallagher and Robinson controversy of the 1950s and after5. Cultural explanations of British imperialism I: post colonial theory and its critics6. Cultural explanations of British imperialism II: religion, race, gender and class7. The metropole strikes back: the new debate about gentlemanly capitalism and empire 1980-20048. The future of Britain’s imperial history?Further reading