Liberalism, Imperialism, and the Historical Imagination
Nineteenth-Century Visions of a Greater Britain

Tracing the historical works of pivotal nineteenth-century figures, this book illuminates how the history of Empire was written and rewritten.

Theodore Koditschek (Author)

9780521767910, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 February 2011

366 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.66 kg

'Koditschek, in scope and depth, achieves a masterful synthesis that should make this book the standard work for understanding liberal imperial thinking in the nineteenth century.' Karuna Mantena, Victorian Studies

This book examines the ways in which imperial agendas informed the writing of history in nineteenth-century Britain and how historical writing transformed imperial agendas. Using the published writings and personal papers of Walter Scott, J. A. Froude, James Mill, Rammohun Roy, T. B. Macaulay, E. A. Freeman, W. E. Gladstone, and J. R. Seeley among others, Theodore Koditschek sheds light on the role of the historical imagination in the establishment and legitimation of liberal imperialism. He shows how both imperialists and the imperialized were drawn to reflect back on the Empire's past as a result of the need to construct a modern, multi-national British imperial identity for a more economically expansive and enlightened present. By tracing the imperial lives and historical works of these pivotal figures, Theodore Koditschek illuminates the ways in which discourse altered practice, and vice versa, as well as how the history of Empire was continuously written and re-written.

Introduction
1. Imagining Great Britain: Union, Empire and the burden of history: 1800–30
2. Imagining a British India: history and the re-construction of Empire
3. Imagining a Greater Britain: the Macaulays and the liberal romance of Empire
4. Re-imagining a Greater Britain: J. A. Froude: counter-romance and controversy
5. Greater Britain and the 'lesser breeds': liberalism, race and evolutionary history
6. Indian liberals and Greater Britain: the search for union through history
Epilogue: from liberal imperialism to conservative unionism: losing the thread of progress in history.

Subject Areas: Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]