Assessing the British Empire in the light of scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records, this volume explores the origins of empire. It shows how and why England, and later Britain, became involved with transoceanic navigation, trade, and settlement during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

1. The Origins of Empire: An Introduction ; 2. The Struggle for Legitimacy and the Image of Empire in the Atlantic to c.1700 ; 3. War, Politics, and Colonization 1558-1625 ; 4. Guns and Sails in the First Phase of English Colonization 1500-1650 ; 5. 'Civilizing of those Rude Partes': Colonization within Britain and Ireland 1580s-1640s ; 6. England's New Word and the Old 1480s-1630s ; 7. Tobacco Colonies: The Shaping of English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake ; 8. New England in the Seventeenth Century ; 9. The Hub of Empire: The Caribbean and Britain in the Seventeenth Century ; 10. The English in Western Africa to 1700 ; 11. The English in Asia to 1700 ; 12. Literature and Empire ; 13. The English Government, War, Trade, and Settlement 1625-1688 ; 14. New Opportunities for British Settlement: Ireland 1650-1700 ; 15. Native Americans and Europeans in English America 1500-1700 ; 16. The Middle Colonies: New Opportunities for Settlement 1660-1700 ; 17. 'Shaftesbury's Darling': British Settlement in the Carolinas at the Close of the Seventeenth Century ; 18. Overseas Expansion and Trade in the Seventeenth Century ; 19. The Emerging Emprire: The Continental Perspective 1650-1715 ; 20. The Glorious Revolution and America ; 21. Navy, State, Trade, and Empire

`this is an extremely useful volume, and it will be the principal reference work for many years to come. The crisp and apparently effortless summaries of existing scholarship reveal an extra-ordinarily high level of meticulousness.' Karen Ordahl Kupperman, the Jnl of American History, June 00. `The charts and maps tha accompany many chapters convey hard-to-find information in very accessible forms. Graduate students preparing for exams will surely consider the volumes indispensable.' Karen Ordahl Kupperman, the Jnl of American History, June 00. `a set of authors with impeccable credentials ... provide ... systematic overviews.' Miles Ogborn, Journal of Historical Geography, 26, 3. `these volumes and the series of which they are part represent a very useful resource and an important synthesis of much postwar imperial history.' Miles Ogborn, Journal of Historical Geography, 26, 3. `Comprises over a score of substantial essays tracing the rise and crisis of what used to be called the First British Empire ... The Origins of Empire offers a stimulating and highly informative overview of the early stages of the colonizing enterprises.' Robin Blackburn, TLS `Meticulously planned and flawlessly executed, providing texts that are both scholarly and accessible. The combination of thematic chapters on the empire as a whole, and regional ones on particular parts of it, is especially effective ... Another notable feature is the objectivity and sensitivity with which the contributors handle emotive and controversial subjects.' Simon C. Smith, Times Higher Education Supplement `Splendid and endlessly fascinating history of the most splendid and fascinating of all empires ... this looks like becoming a useful and generally very fair survey which should help even academics distinguish between the ethics of the British in search of empire and those of, let us say, the French ... this does what a serious history should do, and allows the reader to come to his own conclusions.' Philip Hensher, Spectator `Professor Louis himself is not merely supremely well qualified on grounds of scholarship, but is also a man of integrity, generosity of mind and, above all, wisdom. These first two of what is to be a five-volume History will surely put at rest any lingering fears that the work might be prejudiced or in any other way inadequate ... a comprehensive picture of the early years of the imperialist adventure ... the Oxford History will be something that most general readers will like to have on their shelves to consult from time to time ... If the rest of the work is carried out with similar authority, with the same magisterial design and craftmanship in the detail, this will be an achievement of which the editors and the University Press can be properly proud.' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph `Fresh... important, interesting as well as judicious, thoughtful as well as scholarly. Throughout, this is an important and thought-provoking volume.' Jeremy Black, Albion `major overview of Britain's imperial pursuits' History Today `the Oxford authors are now able to bring to bear the enormous body of research and reinterpretation coming out of more recent economic, social, demographic, cultural and intellectual history ... The prospect of the completed series is most appealing ... The standard of individual contributors - more than twenty in each volume - is universally high. Almost all of the major themes and topics are identified and explored in a readable way, and the fruits of much recent research, a great deal of it by the authors themselves, are incorporated into the essays ... perhaps best approached as a series of essays to be browsed through in an order dictated by one's own interests rather than by editorial arrangement.' N A M Rodger, The Northern Mariner, July 1999 Vol IX, No 3 `The book remains in many ways an excellent one. At the very least it has opened new vistas at once exciting and humane.' Arthur Williamson, Sixteenth Century Journal XXX