A. P. Thornton was an academic and historian. He was Professor of History at University College, University of Toronto.

• Introduction 1. The Colonization of England 2. The Estates of the Realm 3. English Authority Overseas 4. The Dislocation of Society 5. The Survival of the Ascendancy 6. Bonar Law’s Dynasty 7. Agents and Patients Index

“Professor Thornton begins his book with a characteristic epigram that ‘most history is the history of what the thinker thinks important’ (p.16). In his case, being a student of the history of the British Empire, he believes that certain traits of English character- the habit of authority and its complement, the habit of deference- have much to do with its history.”-David Spring, The Canadian Historical Review, University of Toronto Press, Volume 48, Number 1, March 1967