Anticolonialism in British Politics
The Left and the End of Empire 1918-1964
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:4th Nov '93
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This is the first full scholarly study of British anticolonialism, an offshoot of a massive global upsurge of sentiment which has dominated much of the history of this century. In this wide-ranging and important book, Stephen Howe surveys the attitudes and activities relating to colonial issues of British critics of Empire during the years of decolonisation. He also evaluates the changing ways in which, arising out of the experience of Empire and decolonisation, more general ideas about imperialism, nationalism, and underdevelopment were developed during these years. His discussion encompasses both the left wing of the Labour Party and groups outside it: in the Communist Party, other independent left-wing groups, and single-issue campaigns. The book has considerable contemporary relevance, for British reactions to more recent events - the Falklands and Gulf Wars, race relations, South African apartheid - cannot fully be understood except in the context of the experience of decolonisation and the legacy of Empire.
`stimulating book ... his account provides an important - and largely negative - piece in the jigsaw' The Guardian
'well researched, wide ranging study ... This is an excellent book of record.' Guy Arnold, West Africa, February 1994
`invaluable detail on and critical analysis of the left both inside and outside Parliament...makes an important contribution to the debate on the respective importance of the various contributors to decolonisation...an interesting contribution to a major and on-going debate.` The Times Higher Education Supplement
'thorough monograph ... The main strength, and value, of the book lies in its solid scholarship, and it will serve as a prime source of information for any students contemplating future research on this subject.' Tom Buchanan, Kellogg College, Oxford, Labour History Review
'welcome study ... he provides us with an important book that recovers a vital but neglected dimension of the history of the British Left ... this is an Oxford Historical Monograph ... a most valuable book that deserves to be widely read and followed up by other radical scholars' John Newsinger, Bath College of High Education, Race & Class
This will stand as a definitive study of the colonial debate among Left pressure groups.
In the book as a whole narrative predominates over the analysis; but it is a narrative which combines an expansive and hitherto unintegrated secondary literature with significant new information and ideas on neglected aspects of the subject. This is an unusual book. Howe provides a salutary reminder of both the errors and the constructive idealism of British radicals. * Parliamentary History *
Dr Howe is...primarily concerned to tell us what these activists thought and said about their issues, and what they tried to do to gain public support. He does this very well, with impressive documentation. * The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History *
his extremely wide-ranging researches have been conducted with true scholarly detachment...valuable contribution. In studying anti-colonialism, attachments are still liable to be strong, for Dr Howe's generation no less for mine. His work shows that, given disciplined scholarship, they do not exclude the opposite quality of detachment, nor require the deadly virtue of indifference. * African Affairs *
based on extensive research in a wide range of sources. * Journal of Asian Studies *
wide-ranging study of anti-colonialism in British politics * Gillian Peele, History Today *
ISBN: 9780198204237
Dimensions: 223mm x 146mm x 28mm
Weight: 630g
392 pages