2014 Presentations (Communicative Events)

Internationalism and Empire: British Dilemmas, 1919-1939

Pedersen, Susan G.

These lectures were given as the James Ford Lectures in British History at Oxford University in the Spring of 2014. They incorporate material that was later included in my book, "The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire", which was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. That book is a history of the origins and workings of the mandates system of the League of Nations and its impact on the international and imperial order as a whole. These lectures concentrate more narrowly on Britain’s involvement in the construction of that system and on its unexpected effects on British strategy and power. The fourth lecture, on British dilemmas around the Italo-Ethiopian crisis, has not been published elsewhere; the third lecture (and to a lesser degree the first and sixth lectures) also incorporate material not found in that book. A fully international account of all the themes discussed can be found in The Guardians.