The "British Isles" entered the 20th century as a single state, "Great Britain and Ireland", with a "British Empire" greater in extent and larger in population than the world had ever seen. The first 50 years saw vast change. At home, the separate path of Ireland became steadily more clear-cut. Abroad, the "Dominions" increasingly saw themselves and acted as independent entities and, with the withdrawal from the Indian sub-continent in 1947, the writing was on the wall for the British Empire/Commonwealth. Not unrelated to these changes was the major British involvement in two world wars. This volume presents a very different country in 1951 from what it had been in 1901. The chapters by different authors focus on politics, economics, society, wars, and foreign policy to emphasize the interconnectedness of all these developments. The expositions reflect on the "the British Way and Purpose" from different perspectives.
