Origins and Beginnings: David Armitage’s The Ideological Origins of the British Empire at 25 Years

This article contributes to a symposium on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of David Armitage's The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (Cambridge, 2000). The article looks at Armitage's aims and intentions in the opening chapters of The Ideological Origins, the relation of the book to Armitage's subsequent career as an historian, and concludes with a discussion of the significance of the work.