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.