Publisher's Synopsis
In his inaugural lecture as Smuts Professor of the History of the British Commonwealth at Cambridge, Anthony Low examines the common factors in empire, the uses of force, of legitimacy and of assuagentent by Britain to create an empire across widely diverse societies. Common factors in the contraction of this empire contrasted with the dissolution of other colonial empires. In this common heritage, too, Professor Low sees a unity which gives strength to a Commonwealth of 49 independent states.
