Imperialism and Postcolonialism

Barbara Bush is a Professor of Imperial History at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Her key publications include Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 1650-1838 (1990), which was selected as a Choice Book of the Year in 1991; Imperialism, Race and Resistance:Africa and Britain, 1919-1945,(1999) and ‘Gender and Empire: The Twentieth Century’ in Gender and Empire, Oxford History of the British Empire, Companion Series (2004) edited by Philippa Levine.

"… her excellent book… [is] essential introductory reading" - THES February 2007"Barbara Bush has taken up a remarkable challenge. Through significant case studies, she has produced a strikingly original and formidably wide-ranging examination of the conceptual and theoretical approaches which help us to understand the forms of imperial authority that have shaped our world. The cumulative effect is indeed impressive, and the book will be invaluable to all those who wish to understand globalization and the power relationships which underlie it."John MacKenzie, Lancaster University, UK"A very accomplished and welcome initiative...it can be recommended to students as perhaps the best among numerous recent, partly competing texts."Stephen Howe, University of Bristol, UK''This book's combination of comparativism with case studies, framed by an interdisciplinary approach, will make it essential introductory reading for undergraduates and postgraduates in history and literature for some time to come.''Javed Majeed, University of London, UK

• Introduction, Chapter 1 Untangling imperialism: comparisons over time and space. Chapter 2 Untangling imperialism: theories, concepts and historiography Defining colonialism and imperialism. Case study 1 Conceptualizing imperialism: the case of Ireland. Chapter 3 Imperialism and modernity. Case study 2 China and Japan: modernity, imperialism and anti-Westernism. Chapter 4 Culture and imperialism. Case study 3 Culture and imperialism in British Africa. Chapter 5 Representing empire. Case study 4 Representing empire in British culture. Chapter 6 Postcolonial perspectives: imperialism or globalization?