Empires of Sentiment; Intimacies from Death

David Livingstone and African Slavery ‘at the Heart of the Nation’

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11944009
AutoresJoanna Lewis (0000-0003-0974-2230, Schlumberger (Ireland), autor de correspondencia), J E Lewis
Año2014
Volumen43
Número2
Páginas210-237
Fecha de publicación2014-12-24
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-6534 • E-ISSN: 1743-9329
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03086534.2014.974874
OpenAlexW2030231482
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas35

The article re-examines the death of David Livingstone. It highlights the importance of an outpouring of disinhibited emotion in 1874. Despite a shambolic funeral, a working-class underdog and an anti-slavery tradition were placed ‘at the heart of the nation’. Media coverage generated the experience of intimacy from sentimentalised versions of Livingstone's death and interactions with Africans, unleashing mass empathy, moral feeling and humanitarian impulse. It was crucial to the development of Britain's soft-power empire liberalism, inspiring a powerful network, aware of public opinion, to later intervene in eastern Africa. Thus the role of emotion and emotion capital should be factored more into the history of empire

Ancient history · Empathy · Empire · Feeling · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Psychoanalysis · Public opinion · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Australian History and Society · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Gender Studies · History · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology