Empire State-building

Books on Kenya's colonial history continue to appear but this one is unusual in several aspects. The title is arresting and the chapter headings certainly catch the eye ... the main focus ... is on the history of colonial policies for African social welfare and, as it later transformed, for community development. World War II enhanced the concept of welfare by the state in Britain, and this led to a major transition in the notion of trusteeship in the colonies. The book explores four 'historiographies of empire', as the author puts it: the importance of the war, metropolitan thought, the colonial state and gender ... it is a pity the story is not carried further up to independence; but perhaps this view is an indication of the considerable interest which this book will arouse. -- Oliver Furley * THE ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
One way of reading Joanna Lewis's rich and stimulating study of British colonial welfare policy is as an elaborate absurdist comedy. It describes how a group of otherwise fairly intelligent people came to be engaged in a particularly futile form of alchemy: the attempt to transform the base metal of the inter-war colonial state into a glittering instrument of social improvement...the prose is so lively and elegant that few readers are likely to begrudge Lewis her good-fortune in finding such an accommodating publisher...Yet there is far more to this work than simply vivid story telling. Empire State-Building establishes Lewis as a leading historian of the late colonial state, one who can seamlessly combine post-colonial concerns with gender and the disputed meanings of language, with rigorous empirical research and a sensitive understanding of the very different worlds in which her subjects operated. This is an excellent book and it deserves to be widely read. -- Philip Murphy * JOURNAL OF IMPERIAL & COMMONWEALTH HISTORY *
... a must read for students of empire and colonial state-building... -- Osaak A. Olumwullah * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *
Unquestionably, the book suggests refreshingly new approaches to studying centralized states. -- John Lamphear * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *