Debating foreign policy in eighteenth-century Britain

Focuses on how Britain's foreign policy during the eighteenth century was debated and written about in British society. Taking as a central theme the debate over policy and the development of public culture and politics, the author explores how these were linked to developing relations with Europe and helped shape colonial strategies and expectations. He highlights how widely-shared concerns about such issues as national defense, the strength of the Royal Navy, and trade protection presented little consensus in how they were to be realized, and were the subject of fierce public debate. He underlines how these kinds of issues were not considered in the abstract, but in terms of a political community that was divided over a series of key issues.