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Timothy H Parsons
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

The Second British Empire: In the Crucible of the Twentieth Century

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AuthorTimothy H Parsons
PublisherRowman & Littlefield Publishers
PublishedAug 13 2018
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139780742520516
Dimensions9 X 6 X 0.64 inches
Weight 0.92 pounds
BISAC
CategoriesHistory > Modern - 20th Century
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

At its peak, the British Empire spanned the world and linked diverse populations in a vast network of exchange that spread people, wealth, commodities, cultures, and ideas around the globe. By the turn of the twentieth century, this empire, which made Britain one of the premier global superpowers, appeared invincible and eternal. This compelling book reveals, however, that it was actually remarkably fragile. Reconciling the humanitarian ideals of liberal British democracy with the inherent authoritarianism of imperial rule required the men and women who ran the empire to portray their non-Western subjects as backward and in need of the civilizing benefits of British rule. However, their lack of administrative manpower and financial resources meant that they had to recruit cooperative local allies to actually govern their colonies. Timothy H. Parsons provides vivid detail of the experiences of subject peoples to explain how this became increasingly difficult and finally impossible after World War II as Africans, Asians, Arabs, and West Indians rejected the imperial notion that they were inferior and refused to be ruled by foreigners. Yet he also shows that the transformation of the British colonies into nation-states was not just a transfer of political power. The new postcolonial societies blended British political, economic, and social institutions with local norms and values in the new nations, while mass migration to Britain from the non-Western parts of the Commonwealth created a much more diverse and plural metropolitan society. This book tells the dramatic story of how the British Empire and its demise accelerated and strengthened globalization by creating webs of commerce, migration, and cultural exchange that linked Britons and their former subjects in new ways and produced blended transnational cultures that were British in origin but no longer British in character or style.

Author Bio

As a social historian of twentieth century Africa, my research focuses on understanding how ordinary people experienced imperial rule and the transformation of colonies into nation states.

My books to date have explored how Africans from diverse walks of life navigated the shifting realities of repression and opportunity that emerged during the imperial and early national eras.

Building on this earlier work, I am currently pursuing several research projects.

- The Historical Geography of Kenyan Identity Formation
- Kenya Becomes a Nation State: Expected and Unexpected Outcomes of Competitive National Imagining During the Transfer of Power, 1959-1972
- A World History of the Twentieth Century

Employment

Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, 2006 to the Present.
Director, International and Area Studies, 2010 to 2015.
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Washington University in St. Louis, 2005 to 2011.
Associate Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, 2002 to 2006.
Director, African and Afro-American Studies Program, Washington University in St. Louis, 2003 to 2005, co-director 2013.
Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, 1996 to 2002.

Education

Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D., 1996
George Washington University, M.A., 1991
Wesleyan University, B.A., 1985

Source: Washington University in St Louis

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