Scandal of Colonial Rule

Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution

AvJames Epstein

Häftad, Engelska, 2012

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Beskrivning

In 1806 General Thomas Picton, Britain's first governor of Trinidad, was brought to trial for the torture of a free mulatto named Louisa Calderon and for overseeing a regime of terror over the island's slave population. James Epstein offers a fascinating account of the unfolding of this colonial drama. He shows the ways in which the trial and its investigation brought empire 'home' and exposed the disjuncture between a national self-image of humane governance and the brutal realities of colonial rule. He uses the trial to open up a range of issues, including colonial violence and norms of justice, the status of the British subject, imperial careering, visions of development after slavery, slave conspiracy and the colonial archive. He reveals how Britain's imperial regime became more authoritarian, hierarchical and militarised but also how unease about abuses of power and of the rights of colonial subjects began to grow.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2012-03-22
Mått:151 x 228 x 15 mm
Vikt:510 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Critical Perspectives on Empire
Antal sidor:314
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9780521176774
Utmärkelser:Stansky Book Prize, North American Conference on British Studies 2013

Utforska kategorier

Historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

James Epstein is Distinguished Professor of History, Department of History, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. His previous publications include In Practice: Studies in the Language and Culture of Popular Politics in Modern Britain (2003) and Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual, and Symbol in England, 1790–1850 (1994).

Recensioner i media

'In this this rollicking, sensational tale of imperial misrule, James Epstein takes readers into the colonial underworld peopled by those rogues and scoundrels who both represented British colonial power and defied it … Drawing on legal records, parliamentary debate, personal memoirs, print culture and the uneven, fragmented remains of the colonial archive, he weaves together the fractious histories of Thomas Picton and William Fullarton, suturing their clash of wills to the most important questions of the day: the rule of law, the fate of free labor and the career of liberalism in and outside the metropole … Epstein never lets the men and women of color whose suffering was the scandal of colonial rule fall below our sightline … postcolonial history at its best: erudite, breathtaking, subversive - and portable … to a host of other imperial times and places …' Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Innehållsförteckning

Introduction; 1. Politics of colonial sensation; 2. A gentleman's way in the world; 3. 'Only answerable to God and conscience': justice unbounded by law; 4. Ruling narratives; 5. The radical underworld goes colonial; 6. In search of free labor; 7. Conspiracy in the archive; Epilogue: moving on.