Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire [Paperback]

Jan Morris (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest/HBJ Book | Publication Date: May 19, 1980

This centerpiece of the trilogy captures the British at the height of their vigor and self-satisfaction, imposing their traditions and tastes, their idealists and rascals, on diverse peoples of the world. Index. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jan Morris served as an intelligence officer with the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, studied at Oxford University, and was a reporter for the Times and the Guardian before launching into a successful career as a novelist, history author, and travel writer. Her other books include Last Letters from Hav, Fifty Years of Europe, Conundrum, Hong Kong, Oxford, The World of Venice, and Farewell the Trumpets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 552 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (May 19, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156714663
• ISBN-13: 978-0156714662
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Popular History I've Ever Read, July 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire (Paperback)

James Morris' PAX BRITANNICA, which uses the British Empire as it was in l900 as a framework, is the best work of popular history I've every read. Morris (who is now "Jan" rather than "James") is one of the world's great writers. This absorbing book focuses on the personalities, great and small, who shaped and controlled the Empire in its glory days. Of course there are many diversions, surprises and curiosities, and Morris fully exploits his brilliant talents as a teller of stories. Morris is as much travel writer as historian. Much of the pleasure (and credibility) of PAX BRITANNICA rests in the fact that Morris visited most of the places of empire and he describes many of them as they were when he was writing the book in the early 1970s. Nothing brings history to life like going to the places where it happened.

PAX BRITANNICA is part of a trilogy. Although the first in the series to be written, chronologically, it falls between HEAVEN'S COMMAND, about the creation of the Empire, and FAREWELL THE TRUMPETS, about the loss of the empire. Although quite splendid, in my opinion, the latter works lack the edge of inspiration, engagement and liveliness which make PAX BRITANNICA so special.

Other notable books by Morris include OXFORD, HONG-KONG, THE WORLD OF VENICE, AMONG THE CITIES and MANHATTAN `45. The versatile, wide-ranging Morris has also recently written a book called LINCOLN: A Foreigner's Quest.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Trilogy is a wonderful work on the British Empire, May 26, 2002

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire (Paperback)

Jan Morris is a fascinating personality. She originally was a he, and he was a guardsman in the British army, an officer from a good family. He left the service, became a historian, and then went to Denmark or wherever, and came back a she. She now writes unusual, affecting, eccentric, entertaining books that are terribly British and a bit disorganized. The Pax Brittanica trilogy is her life's work, near enough, though she's done other books that are very good. This one, however, is three volumes long, quite involved and very detailed. The series includes Heaven's Command, Pax Britannica, and Farewell the Trumpets. The first generally deals with the Empire in the 1840s on, the second follows things through the thirties, and the third follows the empire through its disbandment.

As I said, Morris is eccentric. This means that though the books are sort of chronological, they aren't exactly sorted the way you would expect, and this isn't really a history of the empire or the era. Instead, it's an anecdotal collection of tales, incidents, and sketches, marvelously told. Sort of like the difference between going through a cafeteria once and a sumptuous buffet where you go back and forth, taking time with what you enjoy. I thoroughly enjoyed the books, though I would hesitate to recommend them to someone who wasn't clear on either geography, or at least some basic history of the British Empire. Since this isn't either of those, you need them to understand what she's talking about occasionally.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect springboard to start a study of British history., November 30, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire (Paperback)

This book focuses not only on the actions of history, but the aesthetics as well. It colorfully illustrates the lives of the "Imperial pioneers"; Kitchener, Rhodes, Churchill, Livingston and many more. It also covers the grandest moments of Imperial history- the beginnings of the mercantile empire in Asia, to the moral thrusts in Africa and the Carribean. It is part of a tryptich set, which includes "Heaven' Command" and "Sound of the Trumpets" Though thorough, the book is never preachy.