Australian History
Book Details

Britishness Abroad

Transnational Movements and Imperial Cultures

Academic Monograph

Kate Darian-Smith, Patricia Grimshaw and Stuart Macintyre (eds)

Britishness Abroad explores the cultural, economic and political aspects of Britishness in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Canada and South Africa, as well as in the United States and within Britain itself.

About this Title

As a global phenomenon Britishness encompassed trade, conquest and settlement and the development of imperial cultures within the vast reaches of the British Empire. At its zenith peoples around the world joined in shared traditions and common loyalties that were strenuously maintained; even those who contested its claims found it difficult to escape its effects. With the eclipse of British power and influence, the importance of this legacy has attracted increasing attention from researchers seeking to escape the confines of national histories.

Britishness Abroad explores the cultural, economic and political aspects of Britishness in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Canada and South Africa, as well as in the United States and within Britain itself. Leading scholars consider the movement of people, money, technology, identities, beliefs and attitudes around the British world and examine what happened to Britishness as the Empire declined.

Contributors: Stephen Banfield, Kate Darian-Smith, Anne Dickson-Waiko, Patricia Grimshaw, David Goodman, Jonathan Hyslop, John MacKenzie, Gary Magee & Andrew Thompson, Adele Perry, Bill Schwarz, Stuart Ward

About the Author

Kate Darian-Smith is Professor of Australian Studies and History at the University of Melbourne. She has written on comparative colonial cultures, memory and commemoration, aspects of Australian cultural and social history and on Britishness in contemporary Australian society. Her publications include Text, Theory, Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia, Memory and History in Twentieth-Century Australia and Stirring Australian Speeches.

Patricia Grimshaw is Emeritus Professor and the former Max Crawford Professor of History, at the University of Melbourne. She has published widely on gender and women's history, missionary histories and on Australian and comparative history. Her books include Creating a Nation, Women's Rights and Human Rights: International Perspectives (co-edited) and Equal Subjects, Unequal Rights: Indigenous Peoples in British Settler Colonies (co-authored).

Stuart Macintyre is the Ernest Scott Professor of History and former Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. His many publications include A Concise History of Australia; volume 4 of The Oxford History of Australia; and The History Wars. He has recently co-edited What If? Australian History as it Might Have Been.

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978-0-522-85392-6