1721 The British Empire Before the American Revolution Volume VIII: The Great War for the Empire The Culmination, 1760-1763, by Lawrence Henry Gipson (read 6 June 1982) This is an excellent book. It covers the years 1760 to the conclusion of peace in 1763. I had not realized, or had forgotten, that the British took Havana and Manila in 1762, after Spain foolishly got into the war in 1762. So much was decided by the Seven Years War or, as Gipson insists, by the War for the Empire, which lasted from 1754 to 1763. In fact Prussia and France were not at war. Austria fought Prussia, and France and Austria were allies, but France was not at war with Prussia. So the Seven Years War was concluded by the Peace of Hubertusberg on Feb 15, 1763, whereas the French and Indian War was concluded by the Peace of Paris on Feb 10, 1763. This book was really well put together, and its contents are reflected in its chapter titles. Reading these volumes, and no doubt influenced by Gipson's intense Anglophility, I find my boyhood pro-French bias not present. It was better the War went as it did, even if France was Catholic. After all, Louis XV certainly was not worth any emulation. This volume has been one of the best of the series. ( )