Preface and Acknowledgements
1: The Holy Family: an introduction
2: 'The Pivot of Empire': Monarchy and the Commonwealth,
1918-1945
3: 'A Common Act of Will': The Making of the New Commonwealth,
1945-1952
4: 'A Personal and Living Bond': Accession, Coronation, and
Commonwealth Tour, 1952-1954
5: Winds of Change and the Royal Family
6: 'A poor sort of courtesy to Her Majesty': Republics, Realms and
Rebels, 1960-1970
7: 'A Fragile Flower': Britain and the Headship of the
Commonwealth
8: 'A Royal Duty': Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings in the
1970s
9: 'De-Dominionisation' in the 1970s
10: 'On Her Own': The Queen and the Commonwealth in the 1980s
11: The Fall and Rise of the Royal Commonwealth
Bibliography
Philip Murphy is Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies
and Professor of British and Commonwealth History at the University
of London. He graduated with a doctorate from the University of
Oxford and taught at the Universities of Keele and Reading before
taking up his current post. He has published extensively on
twentieth century British and imperial history and the history of
the British intelligence community. He is the author of Party
Politics and
Decolonization: The Conservative Party and British Colonial Policy
in Tropical Africa 1951-1964 (1995) and Alan Lennox-Boyd: A
Biography (1999), and the editor of British Documents on the End of
Empire:
Central Africa (2005). He is also co-editor of The Journal of
Imperial and Commonwealth History.
a carefully researched and beautifully presented book that
chronicles the relationship between the monarchy, the UK
government, and the decolonisation of the British Empire
*Ruth Craggs, Reviews in History*
Professor Murphy's book by a country mile the most important and
well-informed to have been written about the contemporary British
monarchy
*Peter Oborne, The Telegraph*
Philip Murphy's book makes a strong case for the importance of
analysing the role, self-image, and global perception of the
monarchy in any book about British politics or foreign policy in
the twentieth century ... an interesting, well-written, and
extremely important contribution to the fields of British royal,
political, imperial, and commonwealth history.
*Charlotte Lydia Riley, 20th Century British History*
splendid
*Peter Boyce, American Historical Review*
This is a solidly researched and well-argued book on a neglected
subject that has the additional virtue of being entertaining. It
deserves a wide readership.
*Wm. Roger Louis, English Historical Review*
Monarchy and the End of Empire is a traditional political study
that examines in detail the dynamic relationships between and among
the palace, Whitehall, and Commonwealth governments. This political
focus is its greatest strength, as Murphy researches and writes
this kind of history exceedingly well ... Murphy has thus provided
not only a monograph that enriches and gives texture to our
understanding of monarchy and Commonwealth but also one that
demonstrates a need for more work on these topics, if we are to
ever fully understand the process and results of
decolonization.
*Charles V. Reed, H-Albion*
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