The Governors-General

The English Army and the Definition of the Empire, 1569-1681

By Stephen Saunders Webb

572 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 11 illua

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4186-0
    Published: July 1987
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-8685-9
    Published: January 2014
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-0001-7
    Published: January 2014

Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press

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Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press

In this remarkable revisionist study, Webb shows that English imperial policy was shaped by a powerful and sustained militaristic, autocratic tradition that openly defined English empire as the imposition of state control by force on dependent people. He describes the entire military connection that found expression in the garrisoned cities of England, Scotland, and Ireland and ultimately in the palisaded plantations of Jamaica, Virginia, and New England.

Originally published in 1987.

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Reviews

"One of those rare books that combine extensive original research with an argument that will force historians to reconsider what they have taken for granted. This is a book to be reckoned with."--North Carolina Historical Review

"The most provocatively revisionist interpretation of the British Empire to appear in this century."--John M. Murrin