Cover; FIGHT OR FLIGHT: BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND THEIR ROADS FROM EMPIRE; Copyright; Acknowledgements; Contents; List of Illustrations; List of Maps; Preface; Introducing Fight or Flight; 1:Imperial Zenith? The Victors' Empires after the First World War; A post-war crisis of empire; New territories and threats to Britain's Empire; The French Empire after 1918; French decision-making; Repression and violence in the French Empire; Repression and violence in the British Empire; Co-option and control; Conclusion; 2:Empires and the Challenge of Total War; Widening cracks in the French Empire.

Looking to the Future of the British EmpireFighting for a New French Empire?; Conclusion; 3: Brave New World? Rebuilding Empire after the Second World War; Conclusion; 4:Fiery Sunsets: Fighting Withdrawals in Asia, 1945-8; The Indian subcontinent; Assessing partition and the early withdrawals; Flight or rout? Palestine; The fight alternative: France returns to Indochina; Epitaph: Britain, France, and the early tests of fight or flight; 5: Troubled Roads: War and Revolution in Southeast Asia, 1948-57; Escalating war in Indochina; Conclusion; 6:Fighting Together, Drifting Apart: The Suez Crisis.

Conclusion7: The Return of the Red Shawls? Fighting Insurrection in Madagascar; The 1947 rebellion; Towards independence; Conclusion; 8:Emergency! Paths to Confrontation in Black Africa; Fights in British Africa: The Central African Emergency; Mau Mau; Conclusion; 9:Keeping the Peace? 'Constructive Nationalism' in West Africa; Colonial structures in West Africa; Towards flight solutions in French West Africa?; Conflict and negotiation in Nigeria; A Ghanaian model of constructive nationalism?; West African commonalities: pressure from below; Repression and its abandonment.

Towards independence in French West AfricaConclusion; 10:From a Whisper to a Scream: The Politics of Letting Go; Decolonization's second wave; The Cyprus Emergency; British politics and ending Empire; Economic factors; Arms sales; Fights ahead?; Conclusion; 11:Open Wounds: Fighting the Algerian War; The fight begins; Violence; Intellectuals, immigrants, and the war in France; Extending the fight; The Constantine massacres and after; International and transnational pressures; Terror and counter-terror: fighting the battle of Algiers; Algeria's uniqueness; 12:Endgames in Algeria and Rhodesia.