Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 [Paperback]

David Hancock (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052162942X | ISBN-13: 978-0521629423 | Publication Date: September 13, 1997

Citizens of the World examines the business and social strategies of the men who developed the British empire in the eighteenth century. This book focuses on twenty-three London merchants who traded with America in an age of imperial expansion. These "associates" started their careers as marginal people, sought and took advantage of opportunities around the world, and approached their business and social lives with the improving ideals of the practical Enlightenment. This activity is placed in the context of the developing institutions of Britain's colonies in America and the social world of polite and industrious men and women at home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"To attempt to combine the methods and the inspirational genius of an Edward S. Morgan, a Bernard Bailyn, a Jacob Price, and a Simon Schama in one work is a daunting if not forbidding challenge, but it is one to which David Hancock rises with distinction. Citizens of the World is not your usual run-of-the-mill collective biography or dry-as-dust statistical analysis of colonial trade patterns. It is an inspired account of the whole lives of men who made a difference in the world of trade by their willingness to challenge the system from within....must reading for anyone interested in the emergence of the American economy in the eighteenth century, just as it stands as must reading for anyone who wishes to understand better the predominant role certain London merchants played in shaping the course of the British Empire in the last decades of the eighteenth century." The Journal of American History

"...Hancock tackles a wildly ambitious topic--and succeeds brilliantly....a must reading for every scholar interested in the complex institutional structure of the North Atlantic economy in the eighteenth-century--and in the evolution of the increasingly interactive international economy over the last three hundred years." Business History Review

"...[a] magisterial, beautifully written book." Boston Book Review

"Hancock has not just rehabilitated a long-forgotten relationship of eighteenth-century merchants; he has re-created a world few knew existed..." Times Literary Supplement

"This splendid biography of twenty-three inter-connected London 'associates' in the Atlantic trades is innovative in method, comprehensive in scope, and insightful in relation to exisitng literature....Hancock has provided a new, demanding, and rewarding model for group biography." Ian Steele, The Northern Mariner

"David Hancock's 'Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785' effectivley combines economic and socio-cultural history to produce a much clearer picture of entrepreneurial activities in eighteenth-century Britain than we have hitherto enjoyed." Michael Slaven, Pennsylvania History

"David Hancock in his first book...makes a significant contribution to eighteenth-century Anglo-American commercial and social history....Hancock has written an interesting, scolarly, well-illustrated book that demonstrates that the associates helped to integrate the British empire in the period 1735-1785 by increasing its scope, "deepening its infrastructure, expanding its trade, peopling its shores and hinterlands, and spreading the new optimistic, experimental ideas of the Enlightenment (p.386)." Kenneth Morgan, William and Mary Quarterly

"Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1734-1785, by David Hancock is an impressive cintribution to the literature on the eighteenth century Anglo-American world. This well conceived and exhaustively researched book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Anglo-American world and to imperial trade in the eighteenth century. Citizens of the World is lively, lucid, and informed by a broad and stimulating reading of relevant and related historiographies. It will prove necessary reading for all scholars of Anglo-American, British, and Imperial history for years to come." Richard Connors, Canadian Journal of History

"This is a detailed study of the business and social climbing of a group of eighteenth century British merchants active in the Atlantic world....Hancock has done a prodigious amount of research." J.R. McNeill, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Book Description

Citizens of the World examines the business and social strategies of the men who developed the British empire in the eighteenth century. This book focuses on 23 London merchants who traded with America in an age of imperial expansion. These "associates" started their careers as marginal people, sought and took advantage of opportunities around the world, and approached their business and social lives with the improving ideals of the practical Enlightenment. This activity is placed in the context of the developing institutions of Britain's colonies in America and the social world of polite and industrious men and women at home.

Product Details

• Paperback: 504 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (September 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052162942X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521629423
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something for everyone interested in 18th-century history, May 16, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Hardcover)

This fascinating book has something in it for almost everyone interested in eighteenth-century history. Business historians will find keen analysis of the techniques that a remarkable group of entrepreneurs used to propel themselves from the periphery to the center of Britain's imperial economy. Cultural historians will acquire new insights into what it meant to be British at the moment that identity was being forged. Students of British and American history in general will discover how intricately social ambition, commerce, war, and slavery interacted in the construction of the first empire. And anyone at all who admires intricate argument, imaginative research, and stylish prose will find "Citizens of the World" a delight.
Fred Anderson, University of Colorado at Boulder (from the dust jacket)

4.0 out of 5 stars Citizens of the World, October 11, 2008

By 

F. Cansler (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Paperback)

This is a well-written text dealing with the movement of peripheral outsiders into primacy in the London metropolis. Hancock spends a great deal of time supporting his thesis, though occasionally he does get bogged down in lists and facts. This is not merely an economic history of late eighteenth century trans-Atlantic trade, but an in-depth examination of how a select group of outsiders made their way into the depths and heights of London's metropolis society. Hancock's narrative style makes this an interesting and engaging read. I would recommend this text to anyone interested in how outsiders gained prominence in the London middle class and how those same outsiders became landed `gentlemen' in the late eighteenth century.

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew economic history could be this much fun?, October 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Paperback)

"Citizens" is a vivid, readable portrait of a group of men who, by virtue of their merchant enterprises, helped to shape the destiny of the American colonies in the 18th century. The author, while not stinting on historic detail, manages to squeeze in enough lively anecdotes about the men, their times, and their lives, to make "the Associates" human -- and utterly fascinating.