The Empire Strikes Back?: The Impact of Imperialism on Britain from the Mid-Nineteenth Century

The Empire Strikes Back? injects the empire back into the domestic history of modern Britain.

It takes as its premise the idea that the empire was integral to British state and society -not something off stage, which can be safely left to African and Indian history. It argues that the British developed a remarkably rich relationship with their empire that markedly extended the boundaries of domestic society.  The book concludes by showing why the impact of the empire has become such a hot topic in recent years, and the influence this has had on how British people think about the society we once were, now are, and what we¿d like to be in the future.

Suitable for undergraduate courses in imperial history.

PrefaceAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsList of Tables and Figures1. Elites
2. The Lower Middle Class and the Working Classes at Home3. The Working Class at Work
4. The Working Class at Play5. Women and Children
6. Domestic Politics7. Metropolitan Economics
8. The Forging of British Identities
8. After-EffectsAfterwordAppendixBibliography

• Looks at pro-imperial sentiment as well as the various types of opposition which overseas expansion provoked
• Discusses high and low culture - examining the impact of empire on the daily lives of ordinary working people and how it affected the attitudes of the aristocracy and upper middle classes
• From the Indian Mutiny to the present day students will gain a valuable perspective on the fall of empire

Andrew Thompson is a lecturer at Leeds University and is the author of `Imperial Britain' (Longman, 2000).