Youth and Empire

David M. Pomfret is Associate Professor of History at the University of Hong Kong and the author of Young People and the European City.

"Brilliantly connecting the local with the global, Pomfret weaves together richly detailed case studies drawn from new archival and primary research. This book will make a major contribution not only to histories of childhood, imperalism, and modern France and Britain, but also to ongoing theoretical scholarship on global empires, space and urban reform, and the history of emotions."—Lydia Murdoch, Vassar College "This book is a striking and original approach to childhood in the British and French Asian colonial world. By examining the various contradictory and overlapping meanings of childhood in colonial Asia, Pomfret is able to provide new and often surprising readings of a set of problems that continue to bedevil our contemporary world."—Sander Gilman, Emory University "Fusing two areas that have attracted a good deal of attention over the last few years but have rarely been integrated—the history of childhood and the history of the European Empires—this pioneering work brings to light a wealth of material from archives and libraries across the globe."—Colin Heywood, University of Nottingham "The uniqueness of Pomfret's research lies largely in his comparative approach, as he moves deftly from French to British colonies, bringing out significant differences in the role that childhood played in the colonial centers of Hong Kong, Singapore, Saigon, and Hanoi....Pomfret argues convincingly that children are made to symbolically stand in for the possible unity and the future of the colonies, while themselves remaining marginal to imperial power....This book is a useful resource for researchers and advanced students in French and British studies with an interest in Asia or the colonial imagination."—Melanie Conroy, The French Review

• 1. Childhood and the Reordering of Empire2. Tropical Childhoods: Health, Hygiene and Nature3. Cultural Contagions: Children in the Colonial Home4. Magic Islands: Children on Display in Colonialisms' Cultures5. Trouble in Fairyland: Cultures of Childhood in Interwar Asia6. Intimate Heights: Children, Nature and Colonial Urban Planning7. Sick Traffic: 'Child Slavery' and Imperial Networks8. Class Reactions: Education and Colonial 'Comings of Age'9. Raising Eurasia: Childhood, Youth and the Mixed Race Question10. Conclusion