Empire in Question

Featuring essays written by the influential historian Antoinette Burton since the mid-1990s,Empire in Questiontraces the development of a particular, contentious strand of modern British history, the "new imperial history," through the eyes of a scholar who helped to shape the field. In her teaching and writing, Burton has insisted that the vectors of imperial power run in multiple directions, argued that race must be incorporated into history-writing, and emphasized that gender and sexuality are critical dimensions of imperial history.Empire in Questionincludes Burtonrs"s groundbreaking critiques of British historiography, as well as finely-honed essays in which she brings theory to bear on topics fromJane Eyreto nostalgia for colonial India. Burtonrs"s autobiographical introduction describes how her early encounters with feminist and postcolonial critique led to her convictions that we must ask who counts as a subject of imperial history, while maintaining a healthy skepticism regarding the claims to objectivity that shape much modern history writing. In the coda, she candidly reflects on shortcomings in her own thinking and in the new imperial history, and she argues that British history must be repositioned in relation to world history. Much of Burtonrs"s writing emerged from her teaching;Empire in Questionis meant to engage students and teachers in debates about how to think about British imperialism in light of contemporary events.

Antoinette Burton is Professor of History and Catherine C. and Bruce A. Bastian Professor of Global and Transnational Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She has written and edited many books, including The Postcolonial Careers of Santha Rama Rau and After the Imperial Turn: Thinking with and through the Nation, both also published by Duke University Press. Mrinalini Sinha is Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History at the University of Michigan. C. A. Bayly is Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at Cambridge University.