Europe after Empire
Decolonization, Society, and Culture

A pioneering comparative history of European decolonization from the formal ending of empires to the postcolonial European present.

Elizabeth Buettner (Author)

9780521131889, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 March 2016

553 pages, 33 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.9 kg

'[a] thoughtful, well-organized, scrupulously researched volume. The historical narratives are complemented by strong cultural, social and political analyses. … Anyone embarking on the study of decolonization - widely understood, as in this book - will be grateful to Buettner for providing so comprehensive and perceptive an overview, the best currently available.' The Times Literary Supplement

Europe after Empire is a pioneering comparative history of European decolonization from the formal ending of empires to the postcolonial European present. Elizabeth Buettner charts the long-term development of post-war decolonization processes as well as the histories of inward and return migration from former empires which followed. She shows that not only were former colonies remade as a result of the path to decolonization: so too was Western Europe, with imperial traces scattered throughout popular and elite cultures, consumer goods, religious life, political formations, and ideological terrains. People were also inwardly mobile, including not simply Europeans returning 'home' but Asians, Africans, West Indians, and others who made their way to Europe to forge new lives. The result is a Europe fundamentally transformed by multicultural diversity and cultural hybridity and by the destabilization of assumptions about race, culture, and the meanings of place, and where imperial legacies and memories live on.

Introduction
Part I. Decolonization for Colonizers: Europe's Transition to the Postcolonial Era: 1. Myths of continuity and European exceptionalism: Britain, decolonization, and the Commonwealth family ideal
2. Occupation, resistance, and liberation: the road to Dutch decolonization
3. Soldiering on in the shadow of war: decolonizing la plus grande France
4. Long live the king?: Belgium, the monarchy, and the Congo between the Second World War and the decolonization years
5. From Rose-Coloured Map to Carnation Revolution: Portugal's overseas amputations
Part II. Migrations and Multiculturalisms in Postcolonial Europe
6. Ending empires, coming home: the ghost worlds of European colonial repatriates
7. Ethnic minority immigration from empires lost
8. Reconfiguring nations: identities, belonging, and multiculturalism in the wake of postcolonial migration
Part III. Memories, Legacies, and Further Directions: 9. Remembering and forgetting empires
Epilogue: thoughts toward new histories of contemporary Europe
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]