The Discovery of Islands

by J.G.A. Pocock

Written by one of the world's leading historians of political thought and published over the past three decades, the purpose of these essays is to present British history as the history of several nations interacting with--and sometimes seceding from--association with an imperial state. The commentary presents this history as that of an archipelago, situated in oceans and expanding across them to the Antipodes. Both New Zealand history and ways of seeing history formed in New Zealand enter into the vision.

Paperback

First published September 7, 2001

About the author

John Greville Agard Pocock was a historian of political thought, best known for his studies of republicanism in the early modern period (mostly in Europe, Britain, and America), his work on the history of English common law, his treatment of Edward Gibbon and other Enlightenment historians, and, in historical method, for his contributions to the history of political discourse. Pocock taught at Washington University in St. Louis from 1966 until 1975, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore from 1975 until 2011.

Reviews

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contentious but rich and strange series of essays on "the British world", somewhat suggesting what Geoffrey Hill would have been like if he'd been a historian and from New Zealand.

[xhxhx · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of essays on sovereignty in the history of Britain and the Commonwealth, written for an age of decolonization, devolution, and European integration. Not particularly useful.