Buch, Englisch, 498 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain
Buch, Englisch, 498 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
ISBN: 978-0-19-820854-9
Verlag: Oxford University Press
'Empire? What Empire?' Why most Britons cared so little.
KEY FEATURES:
* A controversial new book from a leading Empire historian
* Argues that for most Britons, Empire meant very little
* Written for a wide general readership.
* Full of lively detail about daily life in 19th and 20th century Britain
* Re-ignites the 'class' question in the study of British history
DESCRIPTION:
The British empire was a huge enterprise. To foreigners it more or less defined Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its repercussions in the wider world are still with us today. It also had a great impact on Britain herself: for example, on her economy, security, population, and eating habits. One might expect this to have been reflected in her society and culture. Indeed, this has now become the conventional wisdom: that Britain was steeped in imperialism domestically, which affected (or infected) almost everything Britons thought, felt, and did.
This is the first book to examine this assumption critically against the broader background of contemporary British society. Bernard Porter, a leading imperial historian, argues that the empire had a far lower profile in Britain than it did abroad. Many Britons could hardly have been aware of it for most of the nineteenth century and only a small number was in any way committed to it. Between these extremes opinions differed widely over what was even meant by the empire. This depended largely on class, and even when people were aware of the empire, it had no appreciable impact on their thinking about anything else. Indeed, the influence far more often went the other way, with perceptions of the empire being affected (or distorted) by more powerful domestic discourses. Although Britain was an imperial nation in this period, she was never a genuine imperial society.
As well as showing how this was possible, Porter also discusses the implications of this attitude for Britain and her empire, and for the relationship between culture and imperialism more generally, bringing his study up to date by including the case of the present-day USA.
CONTENTS:
Empire and Society; Participation; The Prefects; The Middle Classes at School; Trade, Liberty, and Empire: the Middle Classes to 1880; Not in Front of the Servants; Culture and Empire; Peril and Propaganda c.1900; What About the Workers?; Imperialists, Other Imperialists, and Others; Empire on Condition 1914-40; Repercussions; Recapitulation and Conclusion; Bibliography; Index
Zielgruppe
General readers with an interest in the empire, scholars and students of imperial, social, and cultural history.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
- Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
