The Falklands War
An Imperial History

Panoramic, transnational history of the Falklands War and its imperial dimensions, which explores how a minor squabble mushroomed into war.

Ezequiel Mercau (Author)

9781108483292, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2019

264 pages, 20 b/w illus. 2 maps
23.5 x 16.1 x 1.8 cm, 0.58 kg

'… the text is a groundbreaking study of the Falklands War through the lens of British political culture. Mercau's book is a must-read for scholars and advanced students interested in the Falklands dispute and the complex history of British decolonization.' Paula O'Donnell, H-War

Why did Britain and Argentina go to war over a wintry archipelago that was home to an unprofitable colony? Could the Falklands War, in fact, have been a last-ditch revival of Britain's imperial past? Despite widespread conjecture about the imperial dimensions of the Falklands War, this is the first history of the conflict from the transnational perspective of the British world. Taking Britain's painful process of decolonisation as his starting point, Ezequiel Mercau shows how the Falklands lobby helped revive the idea of a 'British world', transforming a minor squabble into a full-blown war. Boasting original perspectives on the Falklanders, the Four Nations and the Anglo-Argentines, and based on a wealth of unseen material, he sheds new light on the British world, Thatcher's Britain, devolution, immigration and political culture. His findings show that neither the dispute, the war, nor its aftermath can be divorced from the ongoing legacies of empire.

Figures
Maps
Acknowledgements
Note on terminology
Abbreviations
Introduction: the Falklands and the legacies of empire
1. Adrift in the South Atlantic: the Falklands amid the turmoil of decolonisation
2. 'Dream island': the long prelude to war
3. 'Goodbye and the best of British': echoes of Greater Britain at the onset of war
4. 'The ghost of imperial Britain': militarism and the memory of empire
5. War of the British worlds: the Anglo-Argentines and the Falklands
6. 'Beyond the quieting of the guns': the Falklands factor and the after-effects of war
Conclusion: the legacies of Greater Britain
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history: post WW2 conflicts [HBWS], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], History of the Americas [HBJK], British & Irish history [HBJD1]