Raymond F. Betts considers the 'process' of decolonization and the outcomes which have left a legacy of problems, drawing on numerous examples including Ghana, India, Rwanda and Hong Kong. He examines:

• the effects of the two World Wars on the colonial empire
• the expectations and problems created by independence
• the major demographic shifts accompanying the end of the empire
• the cultural experiences, literary movements, and the search for ideology of the dying empire and the newly independent nations.

With an annotated bibliography and a chronology of political decolonization, Decolonization gives a concise, original and multi-disciplinary introduction to this controversial theme and analyzes what the future holds beyond the empire.