The Imperial History Wars: Debating the British Empire

Description

The history of the British Empire, a subject that had slipped into obscurity when the empire came to an end, has since made a stunning comeback, generating a series of heated debates about the causes, character, and consequences of empire. In this volume Dane Kennedy offers a wide-ranging assessment of the main schools of thought that have transformed the way we view the British Empire and the world it helped to create. Navigating a clear course through these intellectual waters requires an awareness of their shifting currents and a commitment to tracking their changing character over time. Dane Kennedy has contributed to the imperial history wars for more than thirty years, and in this volume he brings his most important writings, along with brand new material, together for the first time to provide a sweeping overview of the subject and the debates that have shaped it. The Imperial History Wars is essential reading for any student or scholar of the British Empire.

Dane Kennedy is Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University and Director of the National History Center, USA. His recent publications include How Empire Shaped Us (with Antoinette Burton, 2016), Decolonization: A Very Short Introduction (2016), and The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia (2013).

[Kennedy's] real intent, gradually uncovered from within his historiographical analysis, is a challenge to scholars of the field, new and old; an answer to the question Kennedy himself posed in his 2016 article in Perspectives on History: "Does British History Matter Anymore?" The answer is both obvious and elusive-of course it does. * H-Albion * Kennedy is an excellent historian and a lucid writer, and every chapter makes important points. * English Historical Review * The Imperial History Wars can be a minefield - both academically and politically. Dane Kennedy is one of the few historians who could have negotiated this battlefield in such a wide-ranging and adroit way. Generous in its historiographic assessments while still being provocative and engaging in its analysis and insights, this volume will serve as a gateway for scholars and students wishing to make their way in British imperial studies for years to come. * Tillman Nechtman, Skidmore College, USA * Dane Kennedy is a judicious, omnivorous historian who is always at the forefront of historiographical debate. The chapters collected here include enduring classics and more up-to-date interventions. Taken together, they provide a comprehensive overview of the significant debates on the writing of British imperial history in the wake of post-colonialism. * David Armitage, Harvard University, USA * No other historian has paid more attention to the range of invigorating, and often conflicting, trends in the recent study of imperial history than Dane Kennedy. His work has been strikingly influential in opening out the field, in illuminating but never uncritical ways, to the influences coming from other disciplines and a variety of 'schools' of thought, such as postcolonial and subaltern studies. He has also been notably concerned with linking such debates to present events, as well as to the controversial analyses of a modern 'imperial' United States. This book presents an exceptionally valuable collection of material which illustrates and integrates these various approaches, notably bringing them up to date with the extraordinary elections of 2016, of President Trump in the USA, and of the 'Brexit' referendum in the United Kingdom. * John M. MacKenzie, Professor Emeritus, Lancaster University, UK * A really useful text for students unfamiliar with key debates in British imperial history. * Martin Thomas, Professor of International History, University of Exeter, UK *