Vol. 1-3 have been revised.

Includes bibliographical footnotes.

Provincial characteristics and sectional tendencies in the era preceding the American crisis: 1. Great Britain and Ireland. 2. The southern plantations. 3. The northern plantations.--Zones of international friction: 4. North America, south of the Great Lakes region, 1748-1754. 5. The Great Lakes frontier, Canada, the West Indies, India, 1748-1754.--The Great War for the Empire: 6. The years of defeat, 1754-1757. 7. The victorious years, 1758-1760. 8. The culmination, 1760-1763.--The triumphant empire. 9. New responsibilities within the enlarged empire, 1763-1766.--10. The triumphant empire: thunder-clouds gather in the west, 1763-1766.--11. The rumbling of the coming storm, 1766-1770.--12. Britain sails into the storm, 1770-1779--13. The triumphant empire: the empire beyond the storm, 1770-1776; a summary of the series; historiography.

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