Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress is a sweeping, magisterial chronicle of the British Empire at its zenith, tracing the arc of Victorian imperialism from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the Diamond Jubilee of 1897. James Morris — writing before the author's transition and republication under the name Jan Morris — presents a panoramic narrative that moves from the dusty frontiers of India and the battlefields of Africa to the frozen wastes of the Arctic, binding together a cast of soldiers, statesmen, explorers, and subject peoples whose fates were shaped by the relentless expansion of British power. With the eye of a seasoned travel writer and the rigour of a historian, Morris illuminates the contradictions at the heart of empire: its genuine idealism, its casual brutality, its breathtaking ambition, and its tragic human cost. The first volume in the celebrated Pax Britannica trilogy, this work stands as a landmark of narrative history, distinguished by Morris's luminous prose style and an almost novelistic gift for scene-setting and character. Drawing on a vast canvas of primary sources and first-hand travel, it argues that empire was not merely a political or economic enterprise, but a state of mind — a collective Victorian dream of destiny and dominion. Readers who begin this volume will find it impossible to resist the pull of the trilogy's remaining two instalments, each of which charts the slow, magnificent decline of the world's greatest empire.
Author: James Morris
Format: Paperback
Genre: British & Irish history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress is a sweeping, magisterial chronicle of the British Empire at its zenith, tracing the arc of Victorian imperialism from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the Diamond Jubilee of 1897. James Morris — writing before the author's transition and republication under the name Jan Morris — presents a panoramic narrative that moves from the dusty frontiers of India and the battlefields of Africa to the frozen wastes of the Arctic, binding together a cast of soldiers, statesmen, explorers, and subject peoples whose fates were shaped by the relentless expansion of British power. With the eye of a seasoned travel writer and the rigour of a historian, Morris illuminates the contradictions at the heart of empire: its genuine idealism, its casual brutality, its breathtaking ambition, and its tragic human cost. The first volume in the celebrated Pax Britannica trilogy, this work stands as a landmark of narrative history, distinguished by Morris's luminous prose style and an almost novelistic gift for scene-setting and character. Drawing on a vast canvas of primary sources and first-hand travel, it argues that empire was not merely a political or economic enterprise, but a state of mind — a collective Victorian dream of destiny and dominion. Readers who begin this volume will find it impossible to resist the pull of the trilogy's remaining two instalments, each of which charts the slow, magnificent decline of the world's greatest empire.