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The story of the British Empire in the twentieth century is one of decline, disarray, and despondency. Or so we have been told. In this fresh and controversial account of Britain´s end of empire, Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon rejects this consensus, showing instead that in the years 1945-1960 the British government developed a successful imperial strategy based on devolving power to indigenous peoples within the Commonwealth. This strategy was calculated to allow decolonization to occur on British terms rather than those of the indigenous populations, and to thus keep these soon-to-be former colonies within the British and Western spheres of influence during the Cold War. To achieve this new form of informal liberal imperialism, however, the government had to rely upon the use of illiberal dirty wars. Spanning the globe from Palestine to Malaya, Kenya to Cyprus, these dirty wars represented Britain´s true imperial endgame. In this fresh and controversial account of Britain´s end of empire, Grob-Fitzgibbon reveals that the British government developed a successful strategy of decolonization following World War Two

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Acknowledgments Maps Prologue PART I: THE ATTLEE YEARS, JULY 27, 1945 - OCTOBER 26, 1951 A Promised Land, but to Whom? The American Intervention The Terror Begins Again The End of Compromise Into the Abyss The Endgame in Palestine Trouble Comes to Malaya The Appointment of Sir Harold Briggs The Special Air Service, the Briggs Plan, and Progress in Malaya The End of the Attlee Years PART II: THE CHURCHILL YEARS, OCTOBER 26, 1951 - APRIL 6, 1955 A New Government, a New Approach The Carrot and the Stick The Challenge of Mau Mau The General´s Stamp in Malaya ´The Horned Shadow of the Devil Himself´ Dirty Wars, Dirty Deeds A Fresh Start in Kenya? The End of the Churchill Years PART III: THE EDEN YEARS, APRIL 7, 1955 - JANUARY 10, 1957 Problems in Paradise Templer´s Return The Dirty Wars become Dirtier Suez The Endgame for Anthony Eden Epilogue: The Imperial Endgame after Eden Notes Bibliography Index

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BENJAMIN GROB-FITZGIBBON is Assistant Professor of History, Cleveland C. Burton Professor of International Programs, and Associate Director of the International Relations Program at the University of Arkansas, USA. Born in the north of England in 1979, he received his doctorate from Duke University in 2006. His first book, The Irish Experience during the Second World War, was published in 2004. His second book, Turning Points of the Irish Revolution, in 2007. He has previously taught at Duke University and North Carolina State University.

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