In both British and American history, fervent imperialism has always coexisted with bouts of fierce isolationism. — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
There can never be a single, satisfactory comprehensive account of the 'history of the British empire.' — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Too close and unthinking an allegiance to Washington has sometimes got British governments into trouble. — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
I don't even know if I'm British any more. I'm transatlantic, I'm European. — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
The British especially have no excuse for forgetting that empire is a most complex and persistent beast. And it has claws. — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
The 1857 uprising in India did not free the subcontinent, but it changed the way the British viewed and sought to govern it. — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Instead of exporting what they perceived to be rational, modern, humane government to their colonies, the British often found themselves propping up… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
High-level political wives are by no means new. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when patricians dominated British political life, it was… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Even at its most powerful, Britain always needed alliances with other European states. There would almost certainly have been no British victory… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
The immediate impact of British imperial free-trading was often the collapse of local indigenous industries which were in no position to compete,… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Before they became Americans, most white inhabitants of the 13 colonies considered themselves British. It was predictable, therefore, that they would lust… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Look at how the British covered India with railroads, and it is easy to view them as modernisers. Look, however, at the… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Conservative and Labour governments have arguably championed British rights in Brussels so ostentatiously in order to deflect public attention away from their… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Although England, and the rest of the United Kingdom, possesses momentous constitutional texts and significant statutes, since the 1600s there has been… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
In the past, the British had signally failed to build an effective structure of royal authority and administration in their American colonies.… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Recognising that an ostentatious cult of heroism and state service served an important propaganda function for the British elite does not mean,… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
A British imperium enabled Scots to feel themselves peers of the Ebglish in a way still denied them in an island kingdom.… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
In virtually every Continental state at this time, aristocracies had to live with the risk that their property might be pillaged or… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Most Britons still lived and died without encountering anyone whose skin colour was different from their own. Slaves, in short, did not… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Contrary to received wisdom, the British are not an insular people in the conventional sense - far from it. For most of… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Postcolonial critics are, I suspect, wrong when they argue that the mass of British people still mourn the loss of empire. But… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
In the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, as in so many later conflicts, British women seem to have been no more… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
British prime ministers and prime ministers' spouses and children are together becoming ever more like first families. They need to be given… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
It would be wrong to interpret the growth of British national consciousness in this period in terms of a new cultural and… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Human beings are many-layered creatures, and do not succumb to the hegemony of others as easily as historians and politicians sometimes imply.… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
The pre-war empire had been sufficiently informal and sufficiently cheap for Parliament to claim authority over it without having to concern itself… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
In Britain, British history is naturally a mainstream subject. Step outside your own narrow specialism, and you can find yourself treading on… — Linda Colley Copy Share Image
Britain, like other European states, is not and never will again be in the top-world-power league, so its male leaders can afford to play… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Hillary Clinton is tough, clever, and formidably well briefed, and has been politically ambitious all her adult life. — Linda Colley Copy Share
In Great Britain, woman was subordinate and confined. But at least she was also safe. — Linda Colley Copy Share
Once conscription was introduced during the First World War, and once Britain's wars ceased being confined to the empire or to continental Europe and… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Virtually every war fought since the Act of Union had gone badly at some stage, but before 1783 none had ended in defeat. Nor… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Traditionally, royal females who have not had the luck to become queens regnant have been granted very limited roles. They have been expected to… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Never fly to the U.S. the day before Thanksgiving or the weekend after because every airport is guaranteed to be crammed to bursting with… — Linda Colley Copy Share
High-level political wives are by no means new. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when patricians dominated British political life, it was common for… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Governments should encourage and facilitate the teaching of history, but one does not want them to be able to dictate, for political or partisan… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Although Britain has, since 1653, had nothing approaching a single, codified constitution, it did for a very long time possess a broad cult of… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Even at its most powerful, Britain always needed alliances with other European states. There would almost certainly have been no British victory at Waterloo,… — Linda Colley Copy Share
Far from being aberrant and un-British, criticising a war in which our troops are actively engaged is a long-established parliamentary and political tradition. — Linda Colley Copy Share
One of the reasons why the personnel of U.S. politics are more diverse is that - unlike the U.K. - one can compete for… — Linda Colley Copy Share
“By Jamaican standards, this level of slave-ownership on the part of a skilled craftsman was not unusual. The 157 inhabitants of Port Royal who… — Linda Colley Copy Share
