The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997

by Piers Brendan

One of his central arguments is that the Roman Empire was always consciously in the minds of the British imperialists. It was the great historical model for the project of Empire, and that is double-edged: there is both the massive triumphalism and assertion of historic dignity and power in it, but it also means that the entire conversation about the British Empire from the beginning is shot through with a sense of its ultimate likely decline. The book is also good on the fact that the Empire for British society as a whole was a minority pursuit.