Britain's separateness from the rest of Europe is often taken as read. For generations, historians have presented Britain as exceptional and different. In recent years an emphasis on the Atlantic and imperial aspects of British history, and on the importance of the nation and national identity, has made Britain and Ireland seem even more distant from the neighbouring Continent.

• Preface


• Introduction


• 1: The Glorious Revolution and its Constitutional Legacy


• 2: The Continental Commitment in British Foreign Policy


• 3: Finance and Trade


• 4: Politeness and Refinement


• 5: Investigation and Improvement


• 6: Religious Ties


• 7: The Grand Tour


• 8: Earning a Living Abroad


• 9: Maritime Connections


• 10: Britain, Ireland, and Military Europe


• Conclusion

Stephen Conway has taught in the History Department at University College London for twenty-five years. He has written extensively on eighteenth-century British and imperial history, particularly on the impact of war on British and Irish society. He is the author of The War of American Independence, 1775-1783 (1995); The British Isles and the War of American Independence (2000); and War, State, and Society in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Britain and Ireland (2006).