This is a study of the evolving relationship between the British colonial state and the copper mining industry in Northern Rhodesia, from the early stages of development to decolonization, encompassing depression, wartime mobilization and fundamental changes in the nature and context of colonial rule.

LARRY BUTLER was educated at the Polytechnic of North London and King's College London, UK. He has taught at the University of East Anglia since 2002. Among his previous publications are Industrialisation and the British Colonial State: West Africa, 1939-1951 and Britain and Empire: Adjusting to a Post-Imperial World