At Home with the Empire
Metropolitan Culture and the Imperial World

An examination of everyday life practices in Britain's empire, first published in 2006.

Catherine Hall (Edited by), Sonya O. Rose (Edited by)

9780521670029, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 21 December 2006

350 pages
22.8 x 16.1 x 2.1 cm, 0.47 kg

"This volume examines empire's hidden histories sustaining the divide between national and imperial histories." -Julie F. Codell, The Historian

This pioneering 2006 volume addresses the question of how Britain's empire was lived through everyday practices - in church and chapel, by readers at home, as embodied in sexualities or forms of citizenship, as narrated in histories - from the eighteenth century to the present. Leading historians explore the imperial experience and legacy for those located, physically or imaginatively, 'at home,' from the impact of empire on constructions of womanhood, masculinity and class to its influence in shaping literature, sexuality, visual culture, consumption and history-writing. They assess how people thought imperially, not in the sense of political affiliations for or against empire, but simply assuming it was there, part of the given world that had made them who they were. They also show how empire became a contentious focus of attention at certain moments and in particular ways. This will be essential reading for scholars and students of modern Britain and its empire.

1. Introduction: being at home with the Empire Catherine Hall and Sonya Rose
2. At home with history: Macaulay and the history of England Catherine Hall
3. A homogeneous society? Britain's internal 'others', 1800–present Laura Tabili
4. At home with Empire: the example of Ireland Christine Kinealy
5. The condition of women, women's writing and the Empire in nineteenth-century Britain Jane Rendall
6. Sexuality and Empire Philippa Levine
7. Religion and Empire at home Susan Thorne
8. Metropolitan desires and colonial connections: reflections on consumption and empire Joanna de Groot
9. Imagining Empire: history, fantasy and literature Cora Kaplan
10. New narratives of imperial politics in the nineteenth century Antoinette Burton
11. Bringing the Empire home: women activists in imperial Britain, 1790s–1930s Clare Midgley
12. Taking class notes on Empire James Epstein
13. Citizenship and Empire 1867–1928 Keith McClelland and Sonya Rose
Select bibliography.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC], General & world history [HBG]