The purpose of the five volumes of the Oxford History of the British Empire was to provide a comprehensive survey of the Empire from its beginning to end, to explore the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and to study the significance of the British Empire as a theme in world history. The volumes in the Companion Series carry forward this purpose. They pursue themes that could not be covered adequately in the main series while incorporating recent research and providing fresh interpretations of significant topics.
The British Empire Gave Rise to Various new forms of British identity in the colonial world outside the dominions. In cities and colonies, and in sovereign states subject to more informal pressures such as Argentina or China, communities of Britons developed identities inflected by local ambitions and pressures. As a result they often found themselves at loggerheads with their diplomatic or colonial office minders, especially in the era of decolonisation. The impact of empire on metropolitan British identity is increasingly well documented; the evolution of dominions' nationalisms is likewise well known; but the new species of Britishness which attained their fullest form in the mid-twentieth century have received significantly less attention.
Settlers and Expatriates revisits the communities formed by these hundreds of thousands of Britons, as well as the passages home taken by some, and assesses their development, character, and legacy today. Scholars with established experrise in the history of each region explore the commonalities that can be found across British communities in South, East and Southeast Asia, Egypt, and East and Southern Africa, and highlight the particularities that were also distinctive features of each British experience. These overseas Britons were sojourners and settlers; some survived in post-independent states, others were swept out quickly and moved on or back to an often uninterested metropolitan Britain. They have often been caricatured and demonized, but understanding them is important for an understanding of the states in which they lived, whose politics were at times a crucial part of British history and the history of migration and settlement.
Industry Reviews
Few edited collections display a topic in such a comprehensive and fascinating manner, or open up an area for teaching and research as this book does. * Simon J. Potter, 20th Century British History. *
Bickers should be commended for the coherence and uniformly high quality of this collection. The essays all provide political and economic frameworks in which to understand the presence of these communities overseas, as well as perspectives on each communitys composition, beliefs, and experiences * Kevin Grant, Victorian Studies *
This authoritative collection deftly puts ... colonial caricatures in their proper place, revealing instead a much more complex and contested range of British identities. By emphasising the diverse experience of Britons overseas, it not only expands the current limits of British world scholarship but offers a conceptual substitute a world of Britains * Felicity Barnes, English Historical Review *
convincingly re-exposes the lives of the imperial British as a deserving field of academic research, drawing interesting parallels without submerging the diverse or particular * Anna Sanderson, History Today *
a first-rate addition to the Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series * Christopher Prior, Immigrants and Minorities *
this collection constitutes a crucial contribution to the study of imperial mobility and to the consolidating field of settler colonial studies * Lorenzo Veracini, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History *
As a thought-provoking discussion of migration, colonialism and identity ... and as a collection to inspire future research, this is a rich volume with much to offer * Laura Ishiguro, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History *
It is the purpose of Settlers and Expatriates to trace the oft forgotten experiences of these globally dispersed, temporary British sojourners, who often get overshadowed in the historical literature by the much larger volumes of people migrating to the colonies of white settlement. * Bryan Glass, British Scholar Society *
