An Empire On The Edge: How Britain Came To Fight America

Description

In this powerful narrative, Nick Bunker tells the story of the last three years of mutual embitterment that preceded the outbreak of America's war for independence in 1775. It was a tragedy of errors, in which both sides shared responsibility for a conflict that cost the lives of at least twenty thousand Britons and a still larger number of Americans. Drawing on careful study of primary sources from Britain and the United States, An Empire on the Edge sheds new light on the Tea Party's origins and on the roles of such familiar characters as Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Thomas Hutchinson. At the heart of the book lies the Boston Tea Party, an event that arose from fundamental flaws in the way the British managed their affairs. With lawyers in London calling the Tea Party treason, and with hawks in Parliament crying out for revenge, the British opted for punitive reprisals without foreseeing the resistance they would arouse. For their part, the Americans underestimated Britain's determination not to give way. By the late summer of 1774, the descent into war had become irreversible.

Promotion info

A lethal blend of politics, personalities and economics - and a war that few welcomed but nobody could prevent

Reviews

"Nick Bunker dazzles the reader with a deeply researched and clear-eyed accounting of the dissolution of the mighty-but woefully overextended-British Empire. Bunker's mellifluous prose fairly jumps off the page, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into this intricate and fascinating tale" -- William D. Cohan "Utterly absorbing and full of colour, we learn afresh what a mess Britain made of leaving America and, crucially and importantly, how that mess shaped the American psyche" -- Justin Webb, BBC "Highly readable account of the American Revolutionary crisis... A bracing gallop through the three years leading up to the "shot heard round the world" at Lexington, Mass., in April 1775 and an especially lucid portrait of the woes of the East India Co. A broad and telling portrait of the empire at a remarkable moment in its history" Wall Street Journal "Bunker's tightly argued and deeply researched book shows how a broader perspective can shed new light on even the most familiar events" Foreign Affairs "An insightful and aptly acerbic account of the lead-up to the unnecessary loss of America ... The book is especially good on the commercial imperatives that draw both sides to desperation: on the private greed and the arbitrary interferences that persuaded reasonable men to risk their lives" -- Geoffrey Robertson, QC

Author description

Nick Bunker has written for the Liverpool Echo and the Financial Times. He has two graduate degrees from Columbia University in New York, where he studied under the late Professor Edward Said. While at Columbia he began his travels around the United States. For many years, he served as a board member, treasurer and Chairman of the Trustees of the Freud Museum in London. He now lives in Lincoln.