Synopses & Reviews
The first biography of Alfred Webb, Irish nationalist and president of the 1894 Indian National Congress. The biography explores how Webb viewed nationalism as a vehicle for global social justice. Drawing on archives in Britain, Ireland and India the author reveals how Irish and Indians used cosmopolitan London to create networks across the Empire.
Review
“An immensely readable and valuable addition to Irish, imperial and Victorian historiography. Regan-Lefebvres findings are fresh and unexpected. Her account of Webbs Indian National Congress presidency, although clearly the high point of his life and this book, is honest in its anti-climactic portrayal. Cosmopolitan Nationalism in the Victorian Empire, although presented as biography of a peripheral Irish political figure, delivers much more than it promises: a room with a cosmopolitan view.” —Kate OMalley, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History
"The academic community is deeply in debt to Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre for this well-researched and nuanced study. Webbs career ‘reveals the fabric of multicultural social relations in late nineteenth-century Britain, in which individuals from the periphery of the British Empire met at the imperial core and found an international context to their nationalism. Regan-Lefebvre has produced an important contribution to the study of Victorian Irish and Imperial radicalism." —Eugenio F. Biagini, English Historical Review
Synopsis
'All our absorbing interest in our own Irish affairs should not blind us to what is going on in other countries, should not lessen our sympathies towards men and women in other countries who are striving for free institutions as we are.' Thus wrote Alfred Webb (1834-1908), Irish Quaker, nationalist, Member of Parliament, suffragist, and President of the 1894 Indian National Congress. In the first full-length biography of Webb, Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre describes a vibrant civic and political life in Nineteenth-century Ireland. She reveals how Irish and Indian nationalists met in London, the capital of the British Empire, and pursued a multi-cultural politics of cooperation. Rich in detail and drawing on extensive original research, this historical biography provides a fascinating journey into the political, social and cultural worlds of late-Victorian imperialism, and provides a new assessment of the Irish role within it.
About the Author
JENNIFER REGAN completed her PhD at Queens University Belfast. Recent publications include For the Liberty of Ireland at Home and Abroad: The Autobiography of J .F. X. OBrien (edited).