Publisher's Synopsis
Professor Winks maintains that both British and American historiographies would benefit from greater use of comparative methods of inquiry. This is especially true of that body of American scholarship that attempts to explain 'the rise of the United States to world power', a euphemism for the growth of an American empire. Few American scholars appear to have drawn upon European, and especially British, work in the general field of imperial studies; had they done so, such work as does exist within the American historiographical tradition would be rather less ideological in its thrust. Though the field of imperial history is sometimes said to be in decline, this is not the case: rather, the field has been fragmented into constitutent parts, with many scholars who fly under the flag of African, South Asian, or even Latin American history actually pursuing (though with a different vocabulary) issues that require comparative, and imperial approaches. There may well be a resurgence of interest in imperial history as a new generation of scholars come into their own.;This book is intended for students and scholars of historiography.
