Now in paperback. A critical examination of nineteenth century British society and culture arguing that the British public knew little about their empire and only a small number of people were committed to it. The author discusses the implications of these attitudes for Britain and the relationship between culture and imperialism. Index, bib, notes, b/w illus, xxii, 503pp, UK. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

This bibliography covers the Colonial Service in the twentieth century concentrating on memoirs, biographies and autobiographies and each entry includes a full bibliographic details with a short annotation. 129pp, UK. INSTITUTE OF COMMONWEALTH STUDIES.

Challenges the claim that the British Empire was a kinder, gentler empire and suggests that the description of 'Rogue State' is more fitting. How many people today know about Britain's deep involvement in the opium drug trade in China, or that Tony Blair's hero Gladstone devoted his maiden parliamentary speech to defending his family's slave plantation in Jamaica? Index, notes, 286pp, UK. BOOKMARKS.

A history of the British Empire describing the diversity of its colonies, the contradictions of the colonial project and attempts to shape the world to its needs. Illustrated with b/w images. Index, maps, 254pp, UK. TEMPUS PUBLISHING, 0752429582

Argues against the widely held belief that the British Empire was an imaginative and civilizing enterprise. Instead, this polemic reveals a history of systemic repression and almost perpetual violence, showing how British rule was imposed as a military operation and maintained as a military dictatorship. For colonized peoples, the experience was a horrific one, of slavery, famine, battle and extermination. Yet, wherever Britain tried to plant its flag, it met with opposition. From Ireland to India, from the American colonies to Australia, Gott traces the rebellions and resistance of subject peoples whose all-but-forgotten stories are excluded from traditional accounts of empire. He shows, too, how the British Empire provided a blue print for the annihilation of peoples in twentieth-century Europe, and argues that its leaders must rank alongside the dictators of the twentieth century as authors of crimes against humanity on an infamous scale. 576pp, UK. VERSO.

A history of Britain's early colonial warfare. Includes chapters on the Jamaican rebellion of 1865, the Ashanti War of the Golden Stool, the 1896 Zanzibar war, the Benin massacre of 1897, the storming of Madagascar and the Hut Tax War in Sierra Leone. Illustrated with b/w images. Index, bib, sources, ix, 756pp, UK. SUTTON PUBLISHING, 0750931620

An introduction to the key issues and debates surrounding histories of the colonial period, from the birth of British Imperialism to the formation of the Commonwealth. Index, bib, notes, maps, xv, 284pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

A survey of the historical background to cannabis legislation, revealing imperial Britain's role in the cannabis trade and showing how the politics of Empire lead to prohibition. 284pp, UK. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

An academic study of incarceration in colonial and post-colonial societies. The area of study ranges from slave traders to torture in French Algeria to Chinese-American women. Notes, bib, index, 264pp, UK. CONTINUUM.

Explores the formation, structure and maintenance of boundaries and frontiers in settler colonies. Drawing on the work of anthropologists, historians, archaeologists and post-colonial theorists, the authors explore the importance of cross-cultural interactions in the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and America. BNS, 256pp, UK. MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS, 0719058597

An investigation of the connections between homosexuality and imperialism from the late 1800s until the era of decolonisation. Looking at historical figures such as Cecil Rhodes and E.M. Forster, each case study illuminates particular colonial situation and its wider implications for cultural and political life. BNS, 464pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

An exhaustive reference work collecting over 600 essays, focusing on the politics, economy, culture and society of both the colonisers and colonised. The contributors analyse the origins of imperialism, the many forms it took and its impact worldwide. Also analysed is the legacy of colonialism and the gross inequalities of global wealth and power that divides the former conquerors and the people they conquered. Three volume set. BNS, 1208pp, UK. ABC CLIO, 1576073351

The author's classic work on colonialism first published in French in 1964. A passionate critique of French policies in Algeria in the 50s and 60s, and an argument for the necessity of decolonisation that includes a call to use violence to achieve this goal. Also includes Sartre's celebrated preface to Fanon's Wretched of the Earth. Notes, xxiv, 200pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

A non Eurocentric approach to the study of colonialism from its origins to the present. Index, bib, notes, map, xiii, 402pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE, 0415140080

Assesses the role and character of comedy and fantasy in colonial societies across the globe. Deals with oral and written traditions, the history of comic and fantastic discourse, visual, theatrical and literary representations, as well as historical and cultural accounts. B/w ill, notes, bib, index, xi, 237pp, UK. CONTINUUM, 0826449190

An examination of the relationship between colonial experience and criminology and how the history of colonialism has shaped the definition of crime and justice systems, not only in former colonies but also in colonialist countries. Index, bib, xiv, 281pp, UK. PLUTO PRESS, 0745318851

New in paperback. No empire has been larger or more diverse than the British Empire. At its apogee in the 1930s, 42 million Britons governed 500 million foreign subjects. Britannia ruled the waves and a quarter of the earth's surface was painted red on the map. Where Britain's writ did not run directly, its influence, sustained by matchless industrial and commercial sinews, was often paramount. Yet no empire (except the Russian) disappeared more swiftly. Within a generation this mighty structure sank almost without trace leaving behind a scatter of sea-girt dependencies and a ghost of empire, the British Commonwealth of nations. From the war for American independence, the end of the Raj, the 'scram out of Africa' and the unfinished business of the Falklands and Hong Kong to the new 'informal' empire of the United States, this is a comprehensive account of that transition. Index, bib, b/w plates, 640pp, UK. VINTAGE.

A collection of essays examining the multifaceted nature of the colonial science of demography in the last two centuries. The contributing scholars of Africa and the British and French empires focus on three questions: How have historians, demographers, and other social scientists understood colonial populations? What were the demographic realities of African societies and how did they affect colonial systems of power? Finally, how did demographic theories developed in Europe shape policies and administrative structures in the colonies? The essays approach the subject as either broad analyses of major demo-graphic questions in Africa's history or focused case studies that demonstrate how particular historical circumstances in individual African societies contributed to differing levels of fertility, mortality, and migration. 352pp, USA. OHIO U P.

Germany's overseas colonial empire was relatively short-lived, lasting from 1884 to 1918. During this period, dramatically different policies were enacted in the colonies: in Southwest Africa, German troops carried out a brutal slaughter of the Herero people; in Samoa, authorities pursued a paternalistic defence of native culture; in Qingdao, China, policy veered between harsh racism and cultural exchange. Why did the same colonizing power act in such differing ways? This book tackles this question through a cross-cultural analysis of German colonialism, leading to a new conceptualisation of the colonial state and postcolonial theory. Steinmetz uncovers the roots of colonial behaviour in precolonial European ethnographies, where the Hereros were portrayed as cruel and inhuman, the Samoans were idealized as noble savages, and depictions of Chinese culture were mixed. Index, bib, col plates, b/w illus, maps, 640pp, USA. CHICAGO U P.

A survey of the rise and decline of European overseas empires, looking at how and why empires were formed, persisted and lost. The author also sheds new light on the postcolonial climate and the legacies of empire. Index, bib, apps, notes, viii, 524pp, USA. YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0300093144

Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. The authors contend that the new political order of globalisation should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits. Notes, index. xvii, 478pp. USA. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 0674006712

The notion of Empire has in recent years taken on a renewed importance in world politics. US foreign policy has in particular been associated with this concept by both critics and supporters of American global power. But what exactly is an empire? What distinguishes different forms of empire? Is this category still useful in a post-colonial world? Drawing on interdisciplinary debates surrounding this disputed notion, this study offers a survey of different imperial experiences across time and place. Successive chapters consider the imperial organisation of political space, the role of markets in sustaining imperial rule and the contradictory expressions of imperial culture. 196pp, UK. POLITY PRESS.

Explores the political co operations and textual connections which linked anti colonial, nationalist, and modernist groups and individuals in the British empire between 1890 and 1920. It develops the key motifs of lateral interaction and colonial interdiscursivity to build a picture of the imperial world as an intricate network of surprising contacts and margin to margin interrelationships, and of modernism as a far more constellated cultural phenomenon than previously understood. Individual case studies consider Irish support for the Boers in 1899 1902 and Sol Plaatje's conflicted South African nationalism. Index, bib, 239pp, UK. OXFORD UNIV PRESS.

"The British Empire," wrote Adam Smith, "has hitherto been not an empire, but the project of an empire" and John Darwin offers a magisterial global history of the rise and fall of that great imperial project. The British Empire, he argues, was much more than a group of colonies ruled over by a scattering of British expatriates until eventual independence. It was above all a global phenomenon. Its power derived rather less from the assertion of imperial authority than from the fusing together of three different kinds of empire: the settler empire of the white dominions; the commercial empire of the City of London; and Greater India which contributed markets, manpower and military muscle. This unprecedented history charts how this intricate imperial web was first strengthened, then weakened and finally severed on the roller-coaster of global economic, political and geostrategic upheaval on which it rode from beginning to end. 816pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Very Short Introductions are a series of books written by experts in their field, offering an accessible introduction to a new subject. OXFORD UNIV PRESS.

Examines the role of empire in shaping ideas about Britishness after 1945 and assesses the economic consequences of the end of Empire. BNS, 250pp, UK. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

European imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: it locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metro-politan countries sought raw materials of all kinds; they established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies; colonial cities, many of which became great conurbations, fundamentally changed relationships between people and nature. Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements and this book illustrates the diverse environmental themes in the history of empire. Initially concentrating on the material factors that shaped empire and environmental change, it discusses how British consumers and manufacturers sucked in resources that were gathered, hunted, fished, mined, and farmed. Yet it is also clear that British settler and colonial states sought to regulate the use of natural resources as well as commodify them. Conservation aimed to preserve resources by exclusion, as in wildlife parks and forests, and to guarantee efficient use of soil and water. Exploring these linked themes of exploitation and conservation, this study concludes with a focus on political reassertions by colonised peoples over natural resources. 320pp, UK. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Twenty-one articles that explore the nature and impact of colonial withdrawal, ranging across all the European colonial powers. Selected contents: A comparative study of French and British decolonization, Tony Smith; Imperial hangovers: Belgium the economics of decolonisation, Jean-Philippe Peemans; Fanon and Cabral: a contrast in theories of revolution for Africa, Robert Blackley; British decolonisation since 1945: a pattern or a puzzle?, John Darwin; 'Our strike': equality, anticolonial politics and the 1947-48 railway strike in French West Africa, Frederick Cooper; Planned decolonization and its failure in British Africa, John Flint; Africa and the Labour government, 194551, Ronald Hyam; Macmillan and the wind of change in Africa, 195760, Ritchie Ovendale; Decolonisation, the colonial state and chieftaincy in the Gold Coast, Richard C. Crook; School wars: church, state and the death of the Congo, Patrick M. Boyle; People's war, state formation and revolution in Africa: a comparative analysis of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Angola, Patrick Chabal; American attitudes toward decolonization in Africa, Steven Metz; Rethinking the cold war and decolonization: the grand strategy of the Algerian war for independence, Matthew Connelly; Women and Returnees: The Mau Mau rebellion, Kikuyu women and social change, Cora Ann Presley; Decolonization the ultimate diaspora, Anthony Kirk-Greene. 547pp, UK. ASHGATE.

How did the major European imperial powers and indigenous populations experience imperialism and colonisation in the period 1880-1960? In this richly-illustrated comparative account, Robin Butlin provides a comprehensive overview of the experiences of individual European imperial powers - British, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgian, German and Italian and the reactions of indigenous peoples. He explores the complex processes and discourses of colonialism, conquest and resistance from the height of empire through to decolonisation and sets these within the dynamics of the globalisation of political and economic power systems. He sheds new light on variations in the timing, nature and locations of European colonisations and on key themes such as exploration and geographical knowledge; maps and mapping; demographics; land seizure and environmental modification; transport and communications; and resistance and independence movements. In so doing, he makes a major contribution to our understanding of colonisation and the end of empire. 692pp, UK. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

The British Empire was the creation of a tremendous outpouring of energy and opportunism, when the British were at their most self-confident, and the wealth they gathered was prodigious. At its heart lay a sense of the rectitude of the British way of life, meted out to vast swathes of the rest of the world without let or hindrance. Yet, as this book shows, the empire was not formed by coherent policy, and its decline reflected this: its later years were characterised by a series of accidental oversights, decisions taken without due consideration for the consequences, and uncertain pragmatism. Many of the world's trouble spots are those left behind by the chaotic retreat of empire, and its ghosts continue to haunt today's international scene. The problems the empire encountered have still not been resolved and in Iraq, Kashmir, Burma, Sudan, Nigeria and Hong Kong new difficulties have arisen which continue to baffle politicians and diplomats. This powerful new book addresses the realities of the British Empire from its inception to its demise, questioning the nature of its glory and cataloguing both the inadequacies of its ideals and the short-termism of its actions. 480pp, UK. BLOOMSBURY.

Through Barnum's freak shows, Hagenbeck's 'ethnic shows' (touring major European cities from their German base), French-style ‘villages negres’, as well as the great universal and colonial exhibitions, the West invented the 'savage', exhibited the 'peoples of the world', whilst in many cases preparing for or contributing to their colonization This first mass contact between 'us' and 'them', between the West and elsewhere, created an invisible border. Measured by scientists, exploited in shows, used in official exhibitions, these men, women and children became extras in an imaginary and in a history that were not their own. Based on the best-selling French volume ZOOS HUMAINS but with a number of newly commissioned chapters, this book puts into perspective the 'spectacularization' of the Other, a process that is at the origin of contemporary stereotypes and of the construction of our own identities. Bib, b/w & col illus, 445pp, UK. LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Is there only one model for empire, based on European empires? How might the critique of European empires serve to understand imperial forms elsewhere? This collection moves beyond the Eurocentric slant of colonial studies to compare European and non-European empires with socialist states and empire beyond colonialism. Index, bib, 429pp, UK. JAMES CURREY PUBLISHERS.

'A profoundly scholarly work about British imperialism which is so infused with a sense of the comic, the touching and the absurd that it is also splendid entertainment.' Jan Morris, BBC History. Notes, app, index, xxiv, 264pp, UK. PENGUIN BOOKS.

A comparative study of the relationship between the colonising Europeans and the indigenous leadership which they subverted. The author examines how the Europeans were able to rule for so long with so few resources and available capital from the seventeenth century to the twentieth and assesses the legacy of the colonial hierarchies. BNS, 10 maps, 330pp, UK. OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 0199257817

A chronological account and analysis of the history of global Empire from 1700 to the 1950s. The author also addresses current dilemmas generated by the legacy of Empire, and offers an overview of American expansionism. Includes a guide to further reading. Index, refs, gloss, maps, 165pp, UK. PEARSON EDUCATION.

Postcolonial states and metropolitan societies still grapple today with the divisive and difficult legacies unleashed by settler colonialism. Whether they were settled for trade or geopolitical reasons, these settler communities had in common their shaping of landholding, laws, and race relations in colonies throughout the world. By looking at the detail of settlements, from European colonial projects in Africa and expansionist efforts by the Japanese in Korea and Manchuria, to the Germans in Poland and the historical trajectories of Israel/Palestine and South Africa, and analysing the dynamics set in motion by these settlers, the contributors to this volume establish points of comparison to offer a new framework for understanding the character and fate of twentieth-century empires. 320pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

Revisits the history of settler colonialism in such varied societies as the United States, South Africa, Eritrea, and Palestine/Israel. This issue examines similarities and differences among the diverse historical, geographical, and economic instances of settler colonialism, the practice of colonists moving permanently to a new settlement and, in some instances, growing to outnumber the indigenous inhabitants. 330pp, USA. DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Settler colonialism is a global and transnational phenomenon, and as much a thing of the present as a thing of the past. In this book, Lorenzo Veracini explores the settler colonial 'situation' and explains how there is no such thing as neo-settler colonialism or post-settler colonialism because settler colonialism is a resilient formation that rarely ends. Not all migrants are settlers: settlers come to stay, and are founders of political orders who carry with them a distinct sovereign capacity. And settler colonialism is not colonialism: settlers want Indigenous people to vanish (but can make use of their labour before they are made to disappear). Sometimes settler colonial forms operate within colonial ones, sometimes they subvert them, sometimes they replace them. But even if colonialism and settler colonialism interpenetrate and overlap, they remain separate as they co-define each other. 192pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

Identifies the cultivation and landscaping of colonies as one of the primary ways imperial nations justified their empires, examining how landscaping functioned in an imperial mode that defined and remade the heartlands of nations as well as the contact zones and colonial peripheries in the West and East Indies. Index, bib, b/w illus, 281pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS.