British Politics and Foreign Policy, 1758-70

Following on from Professor Black's previous volumes, this book continues his exploration of British politics and foreign policy between the Hanoverian accession in 1714 and the end of the War of American Independence in 1783. This fourth book in the sequence, covering the period 1758-70, consciously avoids treating the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 as a stopping point, and instead continues its investigation into the post-war situation. This provides the reader with a valuable study in continuities before and after the war, as well as highlighting how the period was essentially one of success for Britain - one in which she won a major war with France, defeated Spain, constructed a major empire, and played a key role in the post-war Atlantic world. It thus contrasts with the previous years of crisis covered in the 1744-57 volume, and the repeated failures in the 1770s to confront Russian expansionism, and to reverse tendencies towards isolation in the face of foreign intervention in the War of American Independence. In so doing the book examines the processes of a largely successful foreign policy and politics, both in the more immediate senses of diplomacy and ministerial, parliamentary and public politics, and with reference to broader questions of the links between Britain's international position and the nature of Britain as nation and state. An integral part of professor Black's ongoing analysis of British policy between 1714 and 1783, the book offers a major reassessment of the period, one that provides an informed guide to the parameters established by domestic political circumstances.