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Imperial Nostalgia Peter Mitchell

Imperial Nostalgia By Peter Mitchell

Imperial Nostalgia by Peter Mitchell


$18.99
Condition - Very Good
6 in stock

Summary

A short, polemical study of the persistence of imperial nostalgia in modern British culture, politics, heritage and media.

Imperial Nostalgia Summary

Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves by Peter Mitchell

A strong emotional attachment to the memory of empire runs deep in British culture. In recent years, that memory has become a battleground in a long-drawn ideological war, inflecting debates on race, class, gender, culture, the UK's future and its place in the world. This provocative and passionate book surveys the scene of the imperial memory wars in contemporary Britain, exploring how the myths that structure our views of empire came to be, and how they inform the present. Taking in such diverse subjects as Rory Stewart and inter-war adventure fiction, man's facial hair and Kipling, the Alt-right and the Red Wall, Imperial Nostalgia asks how our relationship with our national past has gone wrong, and how it might be improved.

Imperial Nostalgia Reviews

'It can feel, at times, that the culture wars aimed at sowing division in Britain are going to tear us apart. Peter Mitchell's fantastic new book, however, provides grounds for optimism and teaches us that the answer is to be informed. And there is no better, no more elegant, and no more erudite guide than Mitchell. An essential book for these disconcerting times.'
Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain

'There are very few writers I can think of who combine Peter Mitchell's intelligence, moral clarity, and elegant prose. Every line in this book is rousing. You will not only learn something about our warped understanding of our past. You will also want to do something about it. '
Nesrine Malik, Guardian columnist and author of We Need New Stories: Challenging the Toxic Myths Behind Our Age of Discontent

'This is a brilliant account of Britain's ideological present where the national past is mythologized into simplistic fables that benefit retrograde political forces. With forensic insight and in lively prose, Mitchell shows us how nostalgic fantasies of imperial rightness and whiteness are at the heart of a multitude of concocted cultural battles that seek to prevent a necessarily difficult reckoning with real history.'
Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent -- .

About Peter Mitchell

Peter Mitchell is a writer and historian

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Associative magic: nostalgic time and the revolt against mourning
2 Inventing the tradition: how nostalgia made an empire
3 Sovereign bodies: Britain's imperial present
4 'The best and most perfect virtue': empire, race and free speech in the battle for the university
5 The adventures of the Imperial Wonder Boy: Rory Stewart and the fantasy of innocence
6 'Degraded underfoot perverse creatures': empire and the languages of class
Conclusion: escaping the empire

Further reading
Bibliography
Index

Additional information

GOR011778731
9781526146205
1526146207
Imperial Nostalgia: How the British Conquered Themselves by Peter Mitchell
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Manchester University Press
20210712
248
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Imperial Nostalgia