The British Empire was the largest world empire in history. Australia, Canada, India and much of the African continent were among the British Empire’s imperial possessions. At its height in the early 20th century, nearly one quarter of the world’s people and land were part of “the empire on which the sun never sets.” Today, former British possessions make up nearly one quarter of the membership of the United Nations. This course traces the events surrounding the creation of the Empire, including economic, social and cultural aspects of British rule and the Empire’s demise following World War I. Two decades after the handover of Hong Kong to China, which many consider “the end of Empire,” historian Newell Boyd, Ph.D., revisits the debate over British motives and the legacy of the Empire on the modern world.

The British Empire and Its Legacy

To register for this class or browse all available courses, visit us at glasscock.rice.edu/personal.

March 22–May 10, 2018 Eight Thursdays 2–3:30 p.m.

$225 $215 if registering by March 8$203 for Rice alumni

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Newell Boyd, Ph.D., is a semi-retired professor of history whose primary teaching field is Victorian Britain and the British Empire. He is also an instructor in the Master of Liberal Studies program at Rice University and has been published in a variety of books and scholarly journals in the field of British history. He has published two historical novels on the lives of Joseph Chamberlain and John Ruskin. Dr. Boyd holds a doctorate in history from Texas Tech University and has done post-doctoral research at the University of London, Birmingham University, the London School of Economics, Oxford University, the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh. He has been a fellow at the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London and is a member of England’s Society of Authors and the Royal Historical Society.