关键词: 约翰·西利, 历史与政治, 英帝国, 大大不列颠, 世界性国家

Abstract: The most unique character of John Seeley as a historian lies in his insistence on treating history and politics as two cognate and entwined disciplines. Seeley's primary contribution to the study of the English history is to put modern England in the global context to survey its development. Seeley indicates that the overseas expansion of England has laid down the foundation of a potential World State which comprised Britain and its settler colonies, or “Greater Britain” in Seeley's terminology. Seeley seeks to explore the possibilities and necessities of transforming “Greater Britain” from a potential World State to a real one. For Seeley, a World State should model the United States, in which its federal arrangements based on a carefully designed constitution could effectively help govern a continentsize country and ensure individual liberty within it. In addition its major influence on modern geopolitics, Seeley's historical studies also have formed the basis for the AngloSaxon conception of international politics.

Key words: John Seeley, history and politics, the British Empire, Greater Britain, the World State