Domestic Archives of Empire

This article examines how photography documenting the military campaign in Burma was mobilized in efforts to reconstruct the image and idea of the British Empire at the end of the Second World War. It analyses a selection of popular publications which provided visual instruction for white Anglophone audiences, promoting continuing British imperialism after the Allied victory. These publications were intended to be kept for posterity, acting as ‘domestic archives of empire’ for Anglophone audiences across the globe. Such publications represented the empire at war and in peacetime, supposedly fit for the postwar moment. At the time of their publication, these ‘domestic archives of empire’ exhorted white Anglophone readers to view the British Empire as embodying a liberal and tolerant mission. Today, they offer insights into a vernacular history of empire on the verge of fragmentation, presaging the challenges of reconstruction and decolonization and the development of imperial nostalgia

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · British Empire · Colonialism · Decolonization · Empire · Globe · Political science · Politics · Victory · Visual arts · Visual culture · Australian History and Society · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Law · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

• Reporting the Retreat

  Philip Woods•Reporting the Retreat•2017

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• Colonial Soldiers, Race, and Military Masculinities during and beyond World Wars I and II

  Richard Smith•Oxford Handbook of Gender, War,…•2020

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• Photographing Imperial Citizenship

  Open Access•G Moser•Journal of Visual Culture•2017

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• Looking for The Illustrated London News in Australian Digital Newspapers

  Open Access•Thomas Smits•Media History•2016

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• Burma, Britain, and the Commonwealth, 1946–56

  S R Ashton•The Journal of Imperial &…•2001

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• The Burma Campaign on Film

  I C Jarvie, Ian Jarvie•Historical Journal Of Film Radio…•1988

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• At the Stroke of the Midnight Hour”

  Chandrika Kaul•The Round Table•2008

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• The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire

  Andrew Thompson, Sarah Elizabeth id_orcid Stockwell et al.•Oxford Handbook of the Ends of…•2017

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• Making Enemies

  Kwa Chong Guan•Contemporary Southeast Asia•2004

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• Carefully Concealed Connections

  Valerie Holman•Book history•2005

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• Visualizing Imperial Geography

  Open Access•James R Ryan•Ecumene•1994

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• There'll Always Be an England

  Open Access•Wendy Webster•Journal of British Studies•2001

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• India, Empire, and First World War Culture

  Santanu Da, Santanu Das•India, Empire, and First World…•2018

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• Reconstructing Empire in British and French Africa

  Frederick Cooper, F Cooper et al.•Past & Present•2011

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• Britain and the world, 1945-9

  Anthony Adamthwaite•International Affairs•1985

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