'Andrew Porter has succeeded in rendering one of the most complex historiographies of all modern history into a concise and eminently readable form. The extraordinary breadth of his sources is as admirable as his balanced survey of the many, often conflicting, theories relating to this formative period of world history.' - John MacKenzie 'Full of insight and sound sense...invaluable to students.' - History 'Lively, incisive...as an up-to-date topography of the field European Imperialism is hardly to be bettered.' Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History