Imagining Home: Gender, Race And National Identity, 1945-1964

Imagining Homeoffers a unique examination of ideas and images of home in Britain during a period of national decline and loss of imperial power. In exploring the relationship between gender, 'race' and national identity, it higlights the continuing importance of empire in imaginings of the nation during a period of decolonization. Analyzing the significance of colonialism and racism in shaping ideas of motherhood, employment and domestictiy, it traces the process by which Englishness was increasingly associated with domestic order, and the home and family constructed as white. Drawing extensively on oral history and life-writing, Imagining Homeexamines the multiple meanings of home to women in narratives of beloning and unbelonging. Its focus on the complex interrelationships of white and black women's lives and identities offers a new perspective on this period.