Empire and Society

There can be no presumption that Britain was an essentially ‘imperialist’ nation in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of course she was, in the sense of acquiring and ruling an empire; but that empire might not have been as burdensome as it appeared. In any case, ‘British society’ is a highly questionable concept, which obscures the country's enormous social, political, and cultural heterogeneity during most of this period, and the fact that different sectors of it could have reacted in entirely different ways, according to their own situations and interests. Of course, imperialism can be regarded as ubiquitous, if it is defined broadly and loosely; but the more broadly and loosely it is defined, the less useful it becomes as a descriptive and analytical tool. This is the argument of this chapter. Defined usefully, imperialism did not have to impact greatly on British society and culture.

Ancient history · Art · Empire · Political science · Australian History and Society · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

• Geographies of education, volunteering and the lifecourse

  Open Access•Sarah Mill, Sarah Mills•Cultural Geographies•2016

  Add to list

• Nation-building and regional integration, c .1800–1914

  Berger, Stefan Berger et al.•European Review of History Revue…•2008

  Add to list