The audiobook contains the course lectures; the PDF is the course guide / summary.

What were the forces that thrust the British Empire to its extraordinary position of greatness and then just as powerfully drove it into decline? And why is nearly every nation on earth, in one way or another, the consequence of the British Empire?

In these 36 lectures, Professor Allitt leads you through four centuries of British power, innovation, influence, and, ultimately, diminishment - four profound centuries that literally remade the world and bequeathed the complex global legacy that continues to shape your everyday life. This is a remarkable lecture series; one that will give you fresh insights into world history in a wide range of areas - political, economic, technological, social, and more. And it will also give you a comprehensive overview you won't find offered anywhere else - a context into which you can integrate new knowledge about this country, as well as understand the background of current events in so many other countries that were once part of Britain's empire, from Ireland to China, and in Africa and the Caribbean. Indeed, it seems fair to say that one cannot truly understand the most important aspects of world history without a firm grasp of the history of the British Empire. In giving you that grasp, these lectures draw on a vast range of critical events, riveting personalities, revealing anecdotes, and eloquent quotations.

Compelling, comprehensive, and astonishing in the force of its narrative power, each lecture will give you a refreshing new understanding of what made the British Empire both great in its achievements and vulnerable to its eventual downfall.

Contents:

1. The Sun Never Set
2. The Challenge to Spain in the New World
3. African Slavery and the West Indies
4. Imperial Beginnings in India
5. Clive and the Conquest of India
6. Wolfe and the Conquest of Canada
7. The Loss of the American Colonies
8. Exploring the Planet
9. Napoleon Challenges the Empire
10. The Other Side of the World
11. Abolition of the Slave Trade and Slavery
12. Early African Colonies
13. China and the Opium Wars
14. Britain—The Imperial Center
15. Ireland—The Tragic Relationship
16. India and the “Great Game”
17. Rebellion and Mutiny in India
18. How Canada Became a Nation
19. The Exploration and Settlement of Africa
20. Gold, Greed, and Geopolitics in Africa
21. The Empire in Literature
22. Economics and Theories of Empire
23. The British Empire Fights Imperial Germany
24. Versailles and Disillusionment
25. Ireland Divided
26. Cricket and the British Empire
27. British India between the World Wars
28. World War II—England Alone
29. World War II—The Pyrrhic Victory
30. Twilight of the Raj
31. Israel, Egypt, and the Suez Canal
32. The Decolonization of Africa
33. The White Dominions
34. Britain after the Empire
35. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
36. Epitaph and Legacy