Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

xv, 539 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 476-515) and index.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Imperial Zenith? The Victors' Empires after the First World War -- 2. Empires and the Challenge of Total War -- 3. Brave New World? Rebuilding Empire after the Second World War -- 4. Fiery Sunsets: Fighting Withdrawals in Asia, 1945--8 -- 5. Troubled Roads: War and Revolution in Southeast Asia, 1948--57 -- 6. Fighting Together, Drifting Apart: The Suez Crisis -- 7. The Return of the Red Shawls? Fighting Insurrection in Madagascar -- 8. Emergency! Paths to Confrontation in Black Africa -- 9. Keeping the Peace? ̀Constructive Nationalism' in West Africa -- 10. From a Whisper to a Scream: The Politics of Letting Go -- 11. Open Wounds: Fighting the Algerian War -- 12. Endgames in Algeria and Rhodesia -- 13. New Dawn: After Fight or Flight.

Although shattered by war, in 1945 Britain and France still controlled the world's two largest colonial empires, with imperial territories stretched over four continents. And they appeared determined to keep them: the roll-call of British and French politicians, soldiers, settlers and writers who promised in word and print at this time to defend their colonial possessions at all costs is a long one. Yet, within twenty years both empires had almost completely disappeared. The collapse was cataclysmic. Peaceable 'transfers of power' were eclipsed by episodes of territorial partition and mass violence whose bitter aftermath still lingers. Hundreds of millions across four continents were caught up in the biggest reconfiguration of the international system ever seen. In the meantime, even the most dogged imperialists, who had once stiffly defended imperial rule, ultimately bent to the wind of change. By the early 1950s Winston Churchill had retreated from his wartime pledge to keep Britain's Empire intact. And General de Gaulle, who quit the French presidency in 1946 complaining that France's new post-war democracy would never hang on to the country's imperial prizes, narrowly escaped assassination a generation later - after negotiating the humiliating French withdrawal from Algeria. Fight or Flight is the first ever comparative account of this dramatic collapse, explaining the end of the British and French colonial empires as an intertwined, even co-dependent process.

Decolonization -- History -- 20th century.

Europe -- Colonies -- History -- 20th century.

9780199698271 (hbk.)

0199698279 (hbk.)

60001898843