Imperialism and Postcolonialism

"...essential introductory reading" - Times Higher Education Supplement

Imperialism and Postcolonialism is a comprehensive look at the history of empire, from the Roman times to the present American empire.

The book looks at changes in the way that imperialism has been understood and thought about. It compares empires and looks at the relationship between the history of empire and the histories of individual countries. The book incorporates themes such as culture and national identity in Britain and the relationship between imperialism and modernity.

Foreword

Preface to the series

Author’s acknowledgements

Publisher’s acknowledgements

List of maps

List of illustrations

• Time and change: the ebb and flow of empires
• Commonalities and divergences between empires over time

• Defining colonialism and imperialism
• Untangling concepts and theories
• The postcolonial challenge and its critics

Case study 1 Conceptualizing imperialism: the case of Ireland

• Modernity, capitalism and the rise of European empires
• Imperialism and the culture of modernity: the civilizing mission
• The contradictions of imperialism and modernity 1: race, culture and progress
• The contradictions of imperialism and modernity 2: anti-democratic and atavistic forces in imperial culture
• Modernity and the ambiguities of development in the postcolonial world
• Imperialism, modernity and Eurocentrism: challenges to Western knowledge

Chapter 4 Culture and imperialism

• The colonial frontier and the nature of the colonial encounter
• Culture and colonialism
• Imperial power and cultural oppression
• Transforming colonial cultures: cultural power in practice
• Cultures of modern colonialism: gender, race and sexuality
• Colonizer and colonized: power, resistance and cultural change

Case study 3 Culture and imperialism in British Africa

Chapter 5 Representing empire

• Representing empire: dominant discourses
• Representation and the legitimization of imperial power
• Constructing the colonial/Orientalized subject: race and cultural difference
• Representations of empire in post-imperial culture
• The view of the subaltern: challenges to Western representation of non-Western societies

Case study 4 Representing empire in British culture

Chapter 6 Postcolonial perspectives: imperialism or globalization?

• A post-imperial world?
• Capitalism, imperialism and globalization
• ‘Pax Americana’: an exceptional nation or a world empire?
• The imperial legacy: ongoing struggles in a ‘postcolonial’ world
• Conclusion: future trends

Bibliography

Index

Expert Reviews

"… her excellent book… [is] essential introductory reading" - THES February 2007

"Barbara Bush has taken up a remarkable challenge. Through significant case studies, she has produced a strikingly original and formidably wide-ranging examination of the conceptual and theoretical approaches which help us to understand the forms of imperial authority that have shaped our world. The cumulative effect is indeed impressive, and the book will be invaluable to all those who wish to understand globalization and the power relationships which underlie it."

Professor John MacKenzie, Professor Emeritus of Imperial History, Lancaster University

"A very accomplished and welcome initiative...it can be recommended to students as perhaps the best among numerous recent, partly competing texts."

Stephen Howe
University of Bristol

''This book's combination of comparativism with case studies, framed by an interdisciplinary approach, will make it essential introductory reading for undergraduates and postgraduates in history and literature for some time to come.''

Javed Majeed, Senior Lecturer, University of London

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