Love, Class and Empire
An English Family Saga in the Middle East

Explores social mobility and expatriate love and sexuality in the late British empire, through two families in Iran and Iraq.

A. James Hammerton (Author)

9781009541749, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 September 2025

268 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.25 kg

Early twentieth-century Persia and the Persian Gulf presented a largely blank slate to the British, best known only as a vital conduit to India and a site of contest – the 'great game' – with the Russian Empire. As oil discoveries and increasing trade brought new attention, the expanding telegraph and river shipping industries attracted resourceful men into junior positions in remote outposts. Love, Class and Empire explores the experiences of two of these men and their families. Drawing on a wealth of personal letters and diaries, A. James Hammerton examines the complexities of expatriate life in Iran and Iraq, in particular the impact of rapid social mobility on ordinary Britons and their families in the late imperial era. Uniquely, the study blends histories of empire with histories of marriage and family, closely exploring the nature of expatriate love and sexuality. In the process, Hammerton discloses a tender expatriate love story and offers a moving account of transient life in a corner of the informal empire.

Introduction
1. White-Collar mobility: the making of Edgar Wilson
2. Telegraphy as social lubricant: William Cooper's expatriate journey
3. An expatriate young lady: the education and courtship of Winifred Cooper
4. Marriage, love and war in Persia: the domestic costs of mobility
5. An expatriate marriage: love, sexuality and separation
6. 'Home for good with a loving and grand wife': suburban retirement
7. Fatal wanderlust and home settlement
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]