The purpose of the five volumes of the Oxford History of the British Empire was to provide a comprehensive survey of the Empire from its beginning to end, to explore the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and to study the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. The volumes in the Companion Series carry forward this purpose. They pursue themes that could not be covered adequately in the main series while incorporating recent research and providing fresh interpretations of significant topics. Book jacket.

Professor Deryck M Schreuder is currently Chair of the Australian Universities' Quality Agency and previously Vice Chancellor of two Australian universities, President of the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee, and President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the Australian Historical Association. An Oxford Rhodes Scholar, he was a founding Professor in History at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario and 4th Challis Professor of History in The University of Sydney. He has published widely in British imperial and colonial studies.
Professor Stuart Ward (Ph.D., Sydney) holds an Associate Professorship at the University of Copenhagen, and is currently a visiting researcher at the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies in London. He is the author of Australia and the British Embrace: The Demise of the Imperial Ideal (2001); and he has edited British Culture and the End of Empire (2001). He is co-editing a documentary history of Australia's changing ties to Britain in the decolonisation era, as well as researching a major study of "The End of Greater Britain."