Making the British Empire, 1660-1800

This conference will bring together a number of leading scholars of imperial history, in order to offer new perspectives on the early phase in the development of the British empire. Outlining the fruits of the most recent research in this field, the speakers will address the economic, social, religious and political contexts and motivations for British imperial expansion during the long eighteenth century, as well as British perceptions of other European empires, and ideas about the nature of the early British empire in both metropole and colonies. The event will centre upon the 2010 Neale Lecture, to be delivered by Professor Steve Pincus, entitled 'Reconceptualising the Origins of the British Empire', which will explore the connections between domestic party politics and the imperial impulse, as well as upon a formal response to this lecture, to be delivered by Professor Sir John Elliott, one of the most eminent scholars in the field of imperial history during recent decades.

Speakers: Prof. Steve Pincus (Yale), Prof. Sir J. H. Elliott (Oxford), Dr Bill Bullman (Vanderbilt), Prof. Eliga Gould (New Hampshire), Prof. Julian Hoppit (UCL), Prof. Philip Stern (Duke), Prof. Richard Drayton (KCL), Prof. Peter Silver (Rutgers), Prof. Jennifer Pitts (Chicago)