Migration and Empire, by Marjorie Harper and Stephen Constantine

This volume in the Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series explores population movements within the British Empire between 1815 and the 1960s. Chapters focused on the main migration streams from Britain to other parts of the Empire and from the Empire to Britain are complemented by comparative chapters on social, economic, and political themes, which are generally of greater sophistication and originality. It deserves perhaps two hearty cheers out of three. The scholarship is splendid, with wide-ranging temporal and spatial coverage and original research. The book also deserves strong praise for its sincere effort to include the experiences of what it unfortunately terms ‘non-white’ or ‘coloured’ migrants—even if that inclusion is often sparse and understated. Where the authors, Marjory Harper and Stephen Constantine, disappoint is in presenting a perspective that only partially succeeds in escaping the mind-set of the high imperial age. While the treatment of migrants from Britain (the area of expertise of both authors) seems crisply up-to-date in its inclusion of women, children, and the lives of individuals from all classes, migrants from other parts of the Empire often seem be as subordinated in the volume as they were in its heyday. Centre stage clearly belongs to white people.

Ancient history · Art · Empire · Genealogy · Inclusion (mineral) · Literature · Political science · Politics · Population · Praise · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Sophistication · White (mutation) · Anthropology · Classics · Demography · History · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics