Studies and methods used by scholars to develop a history of Britain's empire
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The historiography of the British Empire refers to the studies, sources, critical methods and interpretations used by scholars to develop a history of the British Empire. Historians and their ideas are the main focus here; specific lands and historical dates and episodes are covered in the article on the British Empire. Scholars have long studied the Empire, looking at the causes for its formation, its relations to the French and other empires, and the kinds of people who became imperialists or anti-imperialists, together with their mindsets. The history of the breakdown of the Empire has attracted scholars of the histories of the United States (which broke away in 1776), the British Raj (dissolved in 1947), and the African colonies (independent in the 1960s). John Darwin (2013) identifies four imperial goals: colonising, civilising, converting, and commerce.[1]
Historians have approached imperial history from numerous angles over the last century.[2] In recent decades scholars have expanded the range of topics into new areas in social and cultural history, paying special attention to the impact on the natives and their agency in response.[3][4] The cultural turn in historiography has recently emphasised issues of language, religion, gender, and identity. Recent debates have considered the relationship between the "metropole" (Great Britain itself, especially London), and the colonial peripheries. The "British world" historians stress the material, emotional, and financial links among the colonizers across the imperial diaspora. The "new imperial historians", by contrast, are more concerned with the Empire's impact on the metropole, including everyday experiences and images.[5] Phillip Buckner says that by the 1990s few historians continued to portray the Empire as benevolent. The new thinking was that the impact was not so great,[clarification needed] for historians had discovered the many ways which the locals responded to and adapted to Imperial rule. The implication Buckner says is that Imperial history is "therefore less important than was formerly believed".[6]
^John Darwin, Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain (2013)
^Ghosh, Durba (2012). "Another Set of Imperial Turns?". American Historical Review. 117 (3): 772–793. doi:10.1086/ahr.117.3.772.
^The newer themes are emphasized in Sarah E. Stockwell, ed., The British Empire: Themes and Perspectives (2008)
^Shefali Rajamannar (2012). Reading the Animal in the Literature of the British Raj. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-137-01107-7.
^Laidlaw, Zoë (2012). "Breaking Britannia'S Bounds? Law, Settlers, and Space in Britain's Imperial Historiography". Historical Journal. 55 (3): 807–830. doi:10.1017/s0018246x12000313. S2CID 145190504.
^Phillip Buckner, "Presidential Address: Whatever Happened to the British Empire?" Journal of the Canadian Historical Association/Revue de la Société historique du Canada (1993) 4#1 pp. 3–32, quote on p. 6
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