The Turning Point in Africa : British Colonial Policy 1938 - 48

London: Frank Cass and Co Limited, 1982. This AS NEW ORIGINAL HARDBACK book (NOT A BOOK PRINTED TO ORDER!) is a significant study of British colonial policy towards tropical Africa during a critical decade, from the complacent trusteeship of the inter-war years to the strategy of decolonization inugrated after the second world war. Charting a course through a wide variety of official sources and private papers, the work assesses the importance for colonial policy of the Colonial Office, the Colonial Service, the Labour Party, African Nationalists, and of ideological and moral preconceptions. The revolution in African policy is investigated with a wide and yet detailed approach. Special attention is devoted to the effects of the Second World War on Britain and her empire and to the importance of American anti-imperialist pressure on the British government. Britain, in many ways dependent on American aid during the war, had to be responsive to the wishes of her Allies. The importance of three individuals - The expert advisor Lord Hailey, the dedicated politician Arthur Creech Jones, and the intellectual and brilliant civil servant Andrew Cohen - receives comprehensive attention and an assessment is made of their contribution to the policy which, from 1948 onwards, led to rapid decolonization in large parts of Africa. The significance of this policy is analyzed in detail. The British aimed at 'nationbuilding' : indirect rule was to be replaced by the forms of English style Local Government, while rapid constitutional progress at the centre was to be conceded, in accordance with a preconceived model, once powerful nationalist movements had arisen. However, as the book shows, progress at the centre was introduced prematurely and outstripped reform in local government so that progress was not the balanced development the British had wished to see. Decolonization had been given irreversible momentum by British planning. This book will be POSTED AT OUR STANDARD RATES FULLY INSURED (UK) ONLY . Please email for further details or Direct Enquiries Tel : 01822 810108.. Not Inscribed or Signed. First Edition. Brown Cloth. FINE ( AS BRAND NEW)/FINE (AS NEW). Illus. by Black and White Frontispiece & Black & White Fold Out Plates. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾". HARDBACK.