Synopses & Reviews
Combining insights from imperial studies and transnational book history, this provocative collection opens new vistas on both fields through ten accessible essays, each devoted to a single book. Contributors revisit well-known works associated with the British empire, including Charlotte Brontandeuml;and#39;s
Jane Eyre, Thomas Macaulayand#39;s
History of England, Charles Pearsonand#39;s
National Life and Character, and Robert Baden-Powelland#39;s
Scouting for Boys. They explore anticolonial texts in which authors such as C. L. R. James and Mohandas K. Gandhi chipped away at the foundations of imperial authority, and they introduce books that may be less familiar to students of empire. Taken together, the essays reveal the dynamics of what the editors call an andquot;imperial commons,andquot; a lively, empire-wide print culture. They show that neither empire nor book were stable, self-evident constructs. Each helped to legitimize the other.
Contributors. Tony Ballantyne, Elleke Boehmer, Catherine Hall, Isabel Hofmeyr, Aaron Kamugisha, Marilyn Lake, Charlotte Macdonald, Derek Peterson, Mrinalini Sinha, Tridip Suhrud, Andrandeacute; du Toit
Review
andquot;Ten Books That Shaped the British Empire is a collection of engaging essays by an impressive group of contributors. The volume coheres around the political mobilization of print cultures by the British Empireand#39;s various constituent communities, and that coherence is reinforced by each essayand#39;s concentration on a single book. To my knowledge, nothing else remotely like this collection exists.andquot;
Synopsis
Looking at ten books that shaped the modern British Empire, the contributors examine imperial classics, anticolonial blockbusters, and a range of pamphlets, assessing the effects of each one on key aspects of imperial history.
About the Author
Antoinette Burton is Professor of History and Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has written and edited many books, most recently,
The First Anglo-Afghan Wars: A Reader,
A Primer for Teaching World History: Ten Design Principles, and
Empire in Question: Reading, Writing, and Teaching British Imperialism, all published by Duke University Press.
Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and Visiting Distinguished Global Professor at New York University. Her prize-winning books include Gandhiand#39;s Printing Press: Experiments in Slow Reading, and#39;We Spend Our Years as a Tale That is Toldand#39;: Oral Historical Storytelling in a South African Chiefdom, and The Portable Bunyan: A Transnational History of The Pilgrimand#39;s Progress.