British Colonial Policy in the Age of Peel and Russell (1930) examines British colonial administration during the administrations of Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. In this period, 1815–41, new ideas were adopted and colonial policy was revolutionized. British attitudes towards colonization and Australia, New Zealand and North America underwent radical changes.

In this sweeping re-investigation of Canadian legal history, Harring shows that Canada has historically dispossessed Aboriginal peoples of even the most basic civil rights.

The phenomenon of imperialism has never been under such intense scrutiny, by such a wide range of academic disciplines, as it is today. From cultural studies to the history of science, academics are engaged in a series of debates about empire which move far beyond traditional preoccupations with metropolitan strategy, economics, and rivalry. This volume negotiates the many trends and concerns in recent areas of debate, to provide a broad-based, comparative history of the British Empire through the use of primary and secondary documentary sources. Selections are presented within a chronological framework, beginning with the origins of empire and ending with decolonization. The selections are illuminated by a central theme of identity, which both reflects modern scholarly preoccupations, and establishes a clear and coherent approach to the selected readings. General and section introductions explore such issues as the role of economics and religion in imperial expansion and rule; how indigenous and Creole populations constructed and expressed their own identities; and what changes were wrought by the process of decolonization. Bringing together a wide range of documentary evidence, this volume allows the varied and vital debates on aspects of imperialism to be seen in the wider context of the broad history of the British Empire.

The British Empire, wrote Adam Smith, 'has hitherto been not an empire, but the project of an empire' and John Darwin offers a magisterial global history of the rise and fall of that great imperial project. The British Empire, he argues, was much more than a group of colonies ruled over by a scattering of British expatriates until eventual independence. It was, above all, a global phenomenon. Its power derived rather less from the assertion of imperial authority than from the fusing together of three different kinds of empire: the settler empire of the 'white dominions'; the commercial empire of the City of London; and 'Greater India' which contributed markets, manpower and military muscle. This unprecedented history charts how this intricate imperial web was first strengthened, then weakened and finally severed on the rollercoaster of global economic, political and geostrategic upheaval on which it rode from beginning to end.

A detailed examination of the circumstances leading to British intervention and hence to the Treaty of Waitangi, Fatal Necessity was first published in 1977. Now re-issued as an e-book, this key text in Treaty studies emphasises that the dual aim of British policy was to protect both settlers and Māori; the reality, however, proved very different.