'These essays reflect the interplay of autobiography and academic scholarship. Future authors … will have to wrestle with the definitions of causes, categories, chronologies and consequences distilled in Anthony Low's pages.' Andrew Porter, The Times Literary Supplement

• 1. The contraction of England: an inaugural lecture 1984; 2. The twentieth century revolution in Monson Asia; 3. India and Britain: the climactic years 1917–1947; 4. The forgotten Bania: merchant communities and the Indian National Congress; 5. Counterpart experiences: India/Indonesia 1920s–1950s; 6. Emergencies and elections in India; 7. East Africa: towards the new order 1945–1963 with John Lonsdale; 8. Africa Year 1960; 9. The end of the British Empire in Africa; 10. History and independent Africa's political trauma; 11. Political superstructures in post-colonial states (i) A register of constructs; (ii) A dislocated polity: Uganda 1960–86; 12. Little Britain and large Commonwealth (i) The post-imperial Commonwealth; (ii) Commonwealth studies and Commonwealth countries; 13. Australia in the eastern hemisphere.