"The Persistence of Empire examines an important yet surprisingly understudied aspect of British and America history: the British public's predominantly loyal response to its government's handling of the American Revolution. Despite a deepening interest in the British dimensions of the Revolution, historians have so far focused largely on British expressions of sympathy for the colonists' resistance. In contrast, Eliga Gould uses sources that include nearly one thousand political pamphlets as well as broadsides, private memoirs, and popular cartoons to explore why most Britons actually supported the American politics of George III and his ministers. In the process, he enriches our understanding of what the American Revolution meant to people on both sides of the Atlantic."--Jacket.