"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."
"During the course of the eighteenth century Britain's status as a major maritime and commercial power steadily grew, and helped shape the global political, economic and military situation. Rather than offering a familiar narrative of Britain's eighteenth-century foreign policy, this book instead focuses upon how this policy was debated and viewed by British society. By probing the problems and issues surrounding the need to define and discuss Britain's foreign policy in public contexts, this book offers a fascinating insight into questions of perceived national interest, and how this developed."@en

Debating foreign policy in eighteenth-century Britain