This work gives an account of the refashioning of ideas about national character in late Victorian culture, with a wide reference to literature and popular culture around the time of the Boer War, and a particular scrutiny of images of the soldier. In specific images, narratives and motifs, the book highlights dynamic tensions, between the external boundaries of empire and those of civil society, and between class antagonisms and national projections. Many new sources and materials are introduced to this field of study.

The late nineteenth century is generally thought of as a period of imperial enthusiasm and fervour, however, beneath the surface there were currents of disquiet and discontent. In this book Mira Matikkala examines the modes of thought that were described as anti-imperialist in the period 1878-1901. She argues that the common ground between the various critics of imperialism was that they all declared to represent 'true Englishness' in contrast to what they regarded as a 'distorted' imperial identity. Previous research has largely embraced the imperialist conception and definition of British imperialism as 'empire patriotism' and general 'empire pride'. This has led to a failure to understand the fact that late-Victorian anti-imperialists comprehended imperialism differently. They drew a clear distinction between the empire and imperialism, the empire signifying mainly emigration, colonisation, and the spontaneous spread of English liberal values in the form of the settler empire; whereas imperialism, as British authoritarian rule in the dependencies, was regarded as the negation of the same liberal spirit which the colonies propounded. Unlike colonisation, imperialism was seen as a new departure in British politics, representing anti-constitutionalism, 'distorted' imperial patriotism, militarism, aggression, and irrational jingoism. In contrast to these imperialist manifestations the anti-imperialists emphasised 'the long line from 1688': liberty and constitutional rights in the form of 'industry and freedom at home, and peace, fair dealing, and moderation abroad'. In their view these 'traditional English values' constituted 'true' Englishness and any 'true' patriotism would be founded on them. The late-Victorian debate on imperialism can be loosely grouped into three main categories, discussed in the three main parts of the book: economy and imperial expansion; ethics and the nature of progress; and practical politics. 'Empire and the Imperial Ambition' will be a significant contribution to the fields of British intellectual history and political thought.

In three elegant and important essays, originally published as pamphlets by Field Day Theatre Company, Terry Eagleton analyzes nationalism, identifying the radical contradictions that necessarily beset it; Fredric Jameson pursues the contradiction between the limited experience of the individual and the dispersed conditions that govern it; and Edward Said explores the work of Yeats as an exemplary and early instance of the process of decolonization. The introduction is by Seamus Deane. Paper edition (1863-1), $9.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Antoinette Burton focuses on the experiences of three Victorian travelers in Britain to illustrate how "Englishness" was made and remade in relation to imperialism. The accounts left by these three sojourners—all prominent, educated Indians—represent complex, critical ethnographies of "native" metropolitan society and offer revealing glimpses of what it was like to be a colonial subject in fin-de-siècle Britain. Burton's innovative interpretation of the travelers' testimonies shatters the myth of Britain's insularity from its own construction of empire and shows that it was instead a terrain open to continual contest and refiguration. Burton's three subjects felt the influence of imperial power keenly during even the most everyday encounters in Britain. Pandita Ramabai arrived in London in 1883 seeking a medical education and left in 1886, having resisted the Anglican Church's attempts to make her an evangelical missionary. Cornelia Sorabji went to Oxford to study law and became the first Indian woman to be called to the Bar. Behramji Malabari sought help for his Indian reform projects in England, and subjected London to colonial scrutiny in the process. Their experiences form the basis of this wide-ranging, clearly written, and imaginative investigation of diasporic movement in the colonial metropolis.

In this study, Gould argues that it was in the imperial capital’s theatrical venues that the public was put into contact with the places and peoples of empire. Plays and similar forms of spectacle offered Victorian audiences the illusion of unmediated access to the imperial periphery; separated from the action by only the thin shadow of the proscenium arch, theatrical audiences observed cross-cultural contact in action. But without narrative direction of the sort found in novels and travelogues, theatregoers were left to their own interpretive devices, making imperial drama both a powerful and yet uncertain site for the transmission of official imperial ideologies. Nineteenth-century playwrights fed the public’s interest in Britain’s Empire by producing a wide variety of plays set in colonial locales: India, Australia, and—to a lesser extent—Africa. These plays recreated the battles that consolidated Britain’s hold on overseas territories, dramatically depicted western humanitarian intervention in indigenous cultural practices, celebrated images of imperial supremacy, and occasionally criticized the sexual and material excesses that accompanied the processes of empire-building. An active participant in the real-world drama of empire, the Victorian theatre produced popular images that reflected, interrogated, and reinforced imperial policy. Indeed, it was largely through plays and spectacles that the British public vicariously encountered the sights and sounds of the distant imperial periphery. Empire as it was seen on stage was empire as it was popularly known: the repetitions of character types, plot scenarios, and thematic concerns helped forge an idea of empire that, though largely imaginary, entertained, informed, and molded the theatre-going British public.

Drawing on a wealth of primary and secondary sources, this book explores how far imperial culture penetrated antipodean city institutions. It argues that far from imperial saturation, the city 'Down Under' was remarkably untouched by the Empire.