Empire of Scholars

Tamson Pietsch is Lecturer in Imperial and Colonial History at Brunel University London

'Along with this exclusion of Americans, Pietsch also recognises racial and gendered exclusions, responding directly to the criticisms outlined above that have been levelled at the British World framework. She explicitly acknowledges that this British academic world privileged “raced and gendered forms of trust and sociability, [and that] the social and institutional practices that connected settler scholars to those in Britain simultaneously sidelined the empire’s various ‘others.’”', Jared van Duinen, Charles Sturt University‘Pietsch’s readable study is a nuanced account of “the social and institutional practices of British and settler English-speaking universities” (p. 8) and explores libraries, scholarships, academic trafficking and appointment practices, and the formalization of imperial university relationships. The book, which is based on the records of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and its precursors, as well as a dozen or more university archives, includes a valuable calendar of dates of foundations of pre–World War II British and Empire universities. It is essential reading for historians of higher education.’William H. Brock, Isis—Volume 107, Number 4, December 2016

• General Editor's introductionIntroduction Part I: Foundations, 1802–801. Building institutions Part II: Connections, 1880–19142. Forging links 3. Making appointments 4. Imperial association Part III: Networks, 1900–395. Academic traffic6. The Great War 7. After the peacePart IV: Erosions, 1919–608. Alternate ties ConclusionBibliography Index