The Business of Decolonization serves to deepen our understanding of the end of the British empire, too often approached as if it was a process shaped and experienced exclusively by nationalist and imperial politicians and policy-makers. It explores British companies' experience of, and involvement in, developments leading to the transfer of power in Ghana, the former colony of the Gold Coast. The book demonstrates that businessmen developed strategies to cope with political change, reveals the extent of their involvement in nationalist politics, and highlights the contrasting responses of different companies to political and constitutional developments in the colony. Drawing on an extensive range of company, business association, personal, and official papers, the book focuses primarily on company activity. However, it also investigates relations between British firms and the colonial state on the eve of Ghanaian independence, and examines the place of British business interests in British policy.

The Business of Decolonization serves to deepen our understanding of the end of the British empire, too often approached as if it was a process shaped and experienced exclusively by nationalist and imperial politicians and policy-makers. It explores British companies' experience of, and involvement in, developments leading to the transfer of power in Ghana, the former colony of the Gold Coast. The book demonstrates that businessmen developed strategies to cope with political change, reveals the extent of their involvement in nationalist politics, and highlights the contrasting responses of different companies to political and constitutional developments in the colony. Drawing on an extensive range of company, business association, personal, and official papers, the book focuses primarily on company activity. However, it also investigates relations between British firms and the colonial state on the eve of Ghanaian independence, and examines the place of British business interests in British policy.

MING QING YANJIU, founded in 1992, is a peer reviewed journal dedicated primarily to advanced studies of pre-modern China. This journal provides a forum for scholars from a variety of fields related to late imperial and early republican period that aim to have a cross-disciplinary discourse. Contributions in sociology, literature, psychology, anthropology, history, geography, linguistics, semiotics, political science, and philosophy, as well as book reviews are welcome.

This text aims to deepen understanding of the end of the British Empire, often approached as a process shaped and experienced by nationalist, imperial politicians and policy-makers.

When the United Nations' Charter was signed in San Francisco in 1945, the number of African member states of the Organisation was only 4. By the end of 1960 it had risen to 22. Today it is 41. How has this come about? The answer is given in this valuable book by Dr. Yassin EI-Ayouty. The handful of Asian and African countries who had the privilege of foundation membership made it their business to see to it that their brethren who were still under the colonial yoke attained their freedom and independence as soon as possible and, in the meanwhile, that they were treated with decency and fairness by their colonial masters. It was a tough assignment. The struggle was long, requiring a great deal of patience and endurance. It was at times fierce, requiring much dogged resolution. It also called for the deployment of intellectual agility ofthe highest order. Fortunately all these qualities were available in the rep resentatives of Asia and Africa who led the great struggle. These dis tinguished delegates also demonstrated a wonderful degree of solidarity which has, happily, become an Afro-Asian tradition at the United Nations. The battle began even before the Organisation had itself become a fact. It would have been a more difficult struggle, had there been no provision in the Charter at all in respect of colonies, by whatever name called.

The two decades that followed World War II witnessed the end of the great European empires in Asia and Africa. Robert Tignor's new study of the decolonization experiences of Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya elucidates the major factors that led to the transfer of power from British to African hands in these three territories. Employing a comparative method in order to explain the different decolonizing narratives in each territory, he argues that the different state policies toward the private business sector and foreign capital were the result of nationalist policies and attitudes and the influence of Cold War pressures on local events. Using business records as well as official government sources, the work highlights the economic aspects of decolonization and weighs the influence of nationalist movements, changes in metropolitan attitudes toward the empire, and shifts in the international balance of power in bringing about the transfer of authority. The author concludes that the business communities did not play decisive roles, adhering instead to their time-honored role of leaving political issues to colonial officials and their nationalist critics. Tignor also finds that the nationalist movements, far from being ineffective, largely realized the primary goals of nationalist leaders that had been articulated for many decades. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Raymond F. Betts considers the 'process' of decolonization and the outcomes which have left a legacy of problems, drawing on numerous examples including Ghana, India, Rwanda and Hong Kong. He examines: the effects of the two World Wars on the colonial empire the expectations and problems created by independence the major demographic shifts accompanying the end of the empire the cultural experiences, literary movements, and the search for ideology of the dying empire and the newly independent nations. With an annotated bibliography and a chronology of political decolonization, Decolonization gives a concise, original and multi-disciplinary introduction to this controversial theme and analyzes what the future holds beyond the empire.