July 2014 – Imperial & Global Forum

Legal Crossroads of Empire: Exeter Historians’ Exhibit Opens This Week

Published on July 30, 2014July 29, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

Dr Nandini Chatterjee
History Department, University of Exeter

Mughal Emperor, seated, handing the Grant of Diwani to Lord Clive, 1765. © The British Library Board, Foster 29

On 31 July, the exhibition titled “A court at the crossroads of empire: stories from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council” will open at the UK Supreme Court, London. You won’t want to miss it. There is colour and drama, and stories that range from murder to child custody, and from Australia to the Caribbean. And there is going to be a very cool touchscreen map of the world, offering more for those who want to go deeper into the areas of the world that the stories told in the exhibition relate to. Continue reading “Legal Crossroads of Empire: Exeter Historians’ Exhibit Opens This Week” →

The Tragedy of American Diplomacy and US Imperialism

Published on July 29, 2014July 29, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

William Appleman Williams is considered the founder of the “strongly influential” Wisconsin School of U.S. foreign relations imperial history that took root from within the History Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Williams’s book The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, first published in 1959, was the first of many revisionist imperial histories of American foreign policy that appeared amid what would become the broader radical New Left movement. Continue reading “The Tragedy of American Diplomacy and US Imperialism” →

This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History

Published on July 26, 2014July 26, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

One among many untouched photos from Soviet Siberia. See story below. Picture: TRIVA photographers

Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

The Financial Times is making a global demand for more historians of wine. Also, killing Hitler, and more on New Left critiques of American imperialism. Oh, and did I mention contraband photos from Soviet Siberia? Here are this week’s top picks in imperial and global history. Continue reading “This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History” →

History PhD Awarded for Work on 19th-Cent. Childhood Socialization in #Nigeria

Published on July 23, 2014July 22, 2014 by CIGH Exeter1 Comment

The Centre for Imperial and Global History wishes to congratulate our student, Temi Alanamu, who was recently awarded an Honourable Mention Award under the inaugural Professor Jan Lucassen Award for the best paper by a PhD student at the European Social Science and History Conference in Vienna, 2014 – a very good showing at her first major conference! Continue reading “History PhD Awarded for Work on 19th-Cent. Childhood Socialization in #Nigeria” →

Churchill the Middlebrow

Published on July 21, 2014July 20, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

Richard Toye
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @RichardToye

Cross-posted from Australian Book Review

On the rear jacket of this fascinating and important book is a picture of Winston Churchill at his desk at Chartwell, his house in Kent, just a few months before the outbreak of World War II. Apparently caught in the moment of literary creation, cigar in mouth and concentrating on his papers, the photo credit – to a Picture Post photographer – leads to the obvious suspicion that this was actually a staged shot. For Churchill, his country home was not merely a place of repose but a writing factory, the output of which would earn him the large sums of money necessary for its upkeep. At the same time, his image as a man of letters served to advertise the product as well as to suggest the existence of a non-political ‘hinterland’ of the kind appropriate to a statesman of fertile brain and broad views. Continue reading “Churchill the Middlebrow” →

This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History

Published on July 19, 2014 by CIGH Exeter1 Comment

Marc-William Palen
History Department, University of Exeter
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

From why ‘liberalism’ means empire to the global struggle over the value of money, here are this week’s top recommended reads in imperial and global history. Continue reading “This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History” →

Congratulations! Exeter History PhD Student Awarded NORHED Postdoc

Published on July 16, 2014 by CIGH Exeter1 Comment

The Centre for Imperial and Global History wishes to congratulate another of our students, Elizabeth (Beth) Laruni, for not only successfully passing her doctoral viva but for being awarded a two-year NORHED postdoctoral fellowship at the Makerere Institute of Social Research in Uganda. Beth, who works on Acholi politics and identity in Northern Uganda, has been with us at Exeter from the beginning of her undergraduate studies, and we are very proud of her achievements! Continue reading “Congratulations! Exeter History PhD Student Awarded NORHED Postdoc” →

The Global Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1946-1994

Published on July 15, 2014July 15, 2014 by CIGH Exeter2 Comments

Dr. Nicholas Grant
American Studies, University of East Anglia
Follow on Twitter @nicholasggrant

The Radical History Review Special Issue on ‘The Global Antiapartheid Movement’ No. 119 (Spring, 2014)

Last month saw the publication of the Radical History Review’s special issue on ‘The Global Anti-Apartheid Movement’. Appearing on the 20^th anniversary of South African democracy, the issue contains articles, roundtables and review pieces that explore a range of transnational connections that shaped political opposition to white supremacy in South Africa. As editors Lisa Brock, Alex Lichtenstein and Van Gosse comment in their introduction, “in seeking contributions to this issue, we made a deliberate effort to give the truly global nature of the movements in solidarity with southern Africa their due.”[1]

Whilst activism in the US and Britain continues to dominate much of the scholarship on the international anti-apartheid movement, this special issue makes an important effort to move beyond this occasionally restricting narrative. Continue reading “The Global Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1946-1994” →

Two Exeter History Lectureships: Deadline Approaching

Published on July 14, 2014July 13, 2014 by CIGH Exeter2 Comments

The History Department at the University of Exeter has two lectureships available. The result of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise confirms Exeter’s position as one of the UK’s leading research-intensive universities. Almost 90% of our research is at internationally recognised levels and every single subject submitted included world-leading (4*) research. When adjusted for the 95% of staff submitted, Exeter ranks among the top 15 in the UK for research out of 159 higher education institutions. The Times Higher Education described Exeter as ‘a rising star among research-intensive institutions’.

Please note: The closing date for completed applications is Thursday 31^st July 2014. Continue reading “Two Exeter History Lectureships: Deadline Approaching” →

This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History

Published on July 12, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

The Atlantic Cable as the Eighth Wonder of the World - Image credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-USZC4-2388 — The Atlantic Cable (1866) depicted as the Eighth Wonder of the World – Image credit:
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division,
reproduction number LC-USZC4-2388

Marc-William Palen
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

From teaching contemporary comparative slavery to 19th-century globalization and hopelessly drunk KGB spies, here are this week’s top reads in imperial and global history. Continue reading “This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History” →

Empires in Perspective: Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia

Published on July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

Rachel Chin
History Department, University of Exeter

Nicole Starbuck. Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2013. 208 pp. £60 (hardback), ISBN 978 1 84893 210 4; £24 (eBook), ISBN 978 1 84893 210 4.

As the blade of the guillotine slowed in the aftermath of the Terror, Napoleon took up the reigns as First Consul and French explorer Nicolas Baudin proposed an ambitious voyage to “interest the whole of Europe” [12]. It is also where Nicole Starbuck begins Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia (2013). A commoner by birth, Baudin made his name as a member of the French merchant marine and French East India Company, eventually captaining a scientific voyage to the Caribbean. However, his 1802 Australian voyage was unique in its narrow scope of exploration, and its unprecedented twenty-two participating naturalists and scientists. This voyage was the first to emphasize specialized knowledge acquisition and scientific detail, a shift from earlier Enlightenment explorations, when natural history was seen as “a sweeping and largely philosophical study of the natural environment…implicated in questions about rationality” [15]. Continue reading “Empires in Perspective: Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia” →

Invisible Empire: An ‘Imperial’ History of the KKK

Published on July 7, 2014June 11, 2018 by CIGH Exeter1 Comment

Dr. Kristofer Allerfeldt
History Department, University of Exeter

Historians are used to the concept of formal and informal empires. They are used to empires expanding and empires declining. Most are perhaps less familiar with a concept bandied about in the United States from the late 1860s to the mid-1930s – that of an “invisible” empire.

In reality this empire was anything but invisible. Born in the turmoil of the post-Civil War South, by the mid-1920s it had spread to all mainland states of the Union, claiming some ten million members.

It was also known as the Ku Klux Klan. Continue reading “Invisible Empire: An ‘Imperial’ History of the KKK” →

This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History

Published on July 5, 2014July 5, 2014 by CIGH Exeter1 Comment

Marc-William Palen
Follow on Twitter @MWPalen

Has Downton Abbey played an imperial role in Anglo-Chinese relations? Ever heard of the Cold War’s socialist internet? What is the current state of international history? What if the US Civil War had turned out differently?

Here are the top reads of the week.

Continue reading “This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History” →

The 1914 Home Rule Act – Is It Worth Celebrating?

Published on July 4, 2014 by CIGH Exeter

Richard Toye
Follow on Twitter @RichardToye

The following remarks were made by Professor Richard Toye at an event held this week at the Irish Embassy to commemorate the centenary of the Third Home Rule Act. The event, which also featured Professors Paul Bew and Michael Laffan, and former Taoiseach John Bruton, will be broadcast on BBC Parliament at 9pm on 5 July.

The 1914 Home Rule Act was, by any standards, a messy compromise. But was it a good compromise or a bad one? Continue reading “The 1914 Home Rule Act – Is It Worth Celebrating?” →

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