Description
Book SynopsisThe British Empire gave rise to various new forms of British identity in the colonial world outside the Dominions. In cities and colonies, and in sovereign states subject to more informal pressures such as Argentina or China, communities of Britons developed identities inflected by local ambitions and pressures. As a result they often found themselves at loggerheads with their diplomatic or colonial office minders, especially in the era of decolonisation. The impact of empire on metropolitan British identity is increasingly well documented; the evolution of dominions'' nationalisms is likewise well known; but the new species of Britishness which attained their fullest form in the mid-twentieth century have received significantly less attention.Settlers and Expatriates revisits the communities formed by these hundreds of thousands of Britons, as well as the passages home taken by some, and assesses their development, character, and legacy today. Scholars with established expertise in th
Trade ReviewFew edited collections display a topic in such a comprehensive and fascinating manner, or open up an area for teaching and research as this book does. * Simon J. Potter, 20th Century British History. *
Bickers should be commended for the coherence and uniformly high quality of this collection. The essays all provide political and economic frameworks in which to understand the presence of these communities overseas, as well as perspectives on each communitys composition, beliefs, and experiences * Kevin Grant, Victorian Studies *
This authoritative collection deftly puts ... colonial caricatures in their proper place, revealing instead a much more complex and contested range of British identities. By emphasising the diverse experience of Britons overseas, it not only expands the current limits of British world scholarship but offers a conceptual substitute a world of Britains * Felicity Barnes, English Historical Review *
convincingly re-exposes the lives of the imperial British as a deserving field of academic research, drawing interesting parallels without submerging the diverse or particular * Anna Sanderson, History Today *
a first-rate addition to the Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series * Christopher Prior, Immigrants and Minorities *
this collection constitutes a crucial contribution to the study of imperial mobility and to the consolidating field of settler colonial studies * Lorenzo Veracini, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History *
As a thought-provoking discussion of migration, colonialism and identity ... and as a collection to inspire future research, this is a rich volume with much to offer * Laura Ishiguro, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *
It is the purpose of Settlers and Expatriates to trace the oft forgotten experiences of these globally dispersed, temporary British sojourners, who often get overshadowed in the historical literature by the much larger volumes of people migrating to the colonies of white settlement. * Bryan Glass, British Scholar Society *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: Britains and Britons over the seas ; 2. The British of Argentina ; 3. Expatriates in cosmopolitan Egypt: 1864-1956 ; 4. Kenya: Home county and African frontier ; 5. Rhodesia 1890-1980: 'The Lost Dominion' ; 6. 'The Last Outpost' The Natalians, South Africa and the British Empire ; 7. Avatars of Identity: The British community in India ; 8. 'Permanent Boarders': The British in Ceylon, 1815-1960 ; 9. The British 'Malayans' ; 10. Shanghailanders and others: British communities in China, 1843-1957 ; 11. 'We don't grow coffee and bananas in Clapham Junction you know!': Imperial Britons Back Home ; 12. Orphans of Empire
