The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History

The Expansion of England: Race, Ethnicity and Cultural History

by Bill Schwarz (Author), Bill Schwarz (Author)

Synopsis

The organized study of history began in Britain when the Empire was at its height. Belief in the destiny of imperial England profoundly shaped the imagination of the first generation of professional historians. But with the Empire ended, do these mental habits still haunt historical explanation?
Drawing on postcolonial theory in a lively mix of historical and theoretical chapters, The Expansion of England explores the history of the British Empire and the practice of historical enquiry itself. There are essays on Asia, Australasia, the West Indies, South Africa and Britain. Examining the sexual, racial and ethnic identities shaping the experiences of English men and women in the nineteenth century, the authors argue that habits of thought forged in the Empire still give meaning to English identities today.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 15 Feb 1996

ISBN 10: 0415060265
ISBN 13: 9780415060264

Media Reviews
This collection of powerful essays is a landmark text in cultural history. Boldly interpretive, global in scope, and richly informative, this volume makes a stimulating and original addition to a key public debate.
-Moira Ferguson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
The Expansion of England is a remarkably fertile exploration of the English national character --moral, political, psychological--as it emerges from Britain's imperial entanglements. The hubris of high Victorian ideas (suddenly so fashionable) are severely put on trial by these colonial texts from Wales, from West Indies, China and the Xhosa nation. Arguing for a revisionary historiography, this book turns the archives into a place of critical adventure.
-Homi Bhabha, University of Chicago
This volume contributes to key debates in social and cultural history, approaches which have too often been isolated to the impoverishment of both. The essays combine a serious engagement with critical theory and a sharp sense of historical specificity and change, the shifting and conflicting perspectives that were at the heart of the colonising project itself. British social history has often been written in isolation from the shaping experiences of empire and racial difference. There is now less excuse for that omission.
-Robert Gray, University of Portsmouth
It was created by enthusiastic scholars, and for enthusiasts of the subject.
- The International History Review, Mar ch 1998