Empires in Perspective

---

This important series examines a diverse range of imperial histories from the early modern period to the twentieth century. Drawing on works of political, social, economic and cultural history, the history of science and political theory, the series encourages methodological pluralism and does not impose any particular conception of historical scholarship. While focused on particular aspects of empire, works published also seek to address wider questions on the study of imperial history.

Send us a Proposal
We invite submissions from established scholars and first-time authors alike. Prospective authors should send a detailed proposal with a rationale, chapter outlines and at least two sample chapters alongside a brief author's biography and an anticipated submission date.

For detailed information on submitting a proposal, including an example of a successful submission, please click here.

Send your proposals to any one of the following:
Caroline Elkins elkins@fas.harvard.edu
Tony Ballantyne tony.ballantyne@otago.ac.nz
Duncan Bell dsab2@cam.ac.uk
Francisco Bethencourt francisco.bethencourt@kcl.ac.uk
Durba Ghosh dg256@cornell.edu

Readership

Empire and Colonial Studies, History, Political Science, Anthropology

Editorial board

Tony Ballantyne is Lecturer in History at the University of Otago, New Zealand. His research focuses on the interconnections between South Asian and British history, with a particular emphasis on the intellectual and cultural networks that reshaped South Asia in the long nineteenth century, incorporating the region into a larger imperial system of exchange and mobility. In addition to exploring the construction of colonial knowledge within South Asia, his work has traced important connections that linked India to the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Ireland and Britain itself. He is the author of Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an Imperial World (Duke University Press, 2006) and Orientalism and Race: Aryanism in the British Empire (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2001 and 2006) and co-editor with Antoinette Burton of Bodies in Contact: Rethinking Colonial Encounters in World History (Duke University Press, 2005).

Duncan Bell is a University Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860–1900 (Princeton, 2007), and has edited a number of books, including Victorian Visions of Global Order: Empire and International Relations in Nineteenth Century British Political Thought (Cambridge, 2007); Pessimism, Power, and Global Ethics: Variations on a Realist Theme (Oxford, 2007); and Memory, Trauma, and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship Between Past and Present (Palgrave, 2006). His historical work focuses mainly on the intellectual history of the British empire in the long nineteenth century.

Francisco Bethencourt is the Charles Boxer Professor of History at the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King's College London. His research interests include the History of Racism in the Atlantic World; Portuguese Identity; History of the Portuguese-speaking world; Comparative History of the European Expansion; History of the Inquisition (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Iberian colonies). He is the author of Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, 1400-1800 (co-editor) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007) ; Inquisition in the Early Modern World (English revised edition, Cambridge University Press, 2006) and L’empire portugais face aux autres empires (co-editor) (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2005). Other publications include História da Expansão Portuguesa (co-editor) (5 vols, Lisbon, Círculo de Leitores, 1998-1999); L’Inquisition à l’époque moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Italie, XVe-XIXe siècles (Paris: Fayard, 1995) et al.

Caroline Elkins is the Hugo K Foster Associate Professor of African Studies at Harvard University. Her first book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. It was also selected as one of the Economist's best history books for 2005, was a New York Times editor's choice, and was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Award. She and her research were also the subjects of a 2002 BBC documentary titled, Kenya: White Terror, which was awarded the International Committee of the Red Cross Award at the Monte Carlos Film Festival. Professor Elkins is a contributor to The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. Professor Elkins's current research interests include colonial violence and post-conflict reconciliation in Africa, and violence and the decline of the British Empire.

Durba Ghosh is Assistant Professor of History at Cornell University, where she teaches courses on modern South Asia, gender, and colonialism. She is the author of Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and with Dane Kennedy, co-editor of Decentering Empire: Britain, India and the Transcolonial World (Orient Longman, 2006). Her teaching and research interests focus on understanding the history of colonialism on the Indian subcontinent. She has written extensively on gender, culture, law, archives, and colonial governance in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century India, and is interested in the importance of history in legitimizing anti-colonial struggles. Her current research focuses on popular regional political movements in early and mid-twentieth century India and the ways in which violence against the British colonial state became an important, but underemphasized, form of protest.

Masaie Matsumura is at Otemae University.

Published titles

• Anglo-Spanish Rivalry in Colonial South-East America, 1650–1725
• Australian Between Empires : The Life of Percy Spender
• Between Empire and Revolution : A Life of Sidney Bunting, 1873–1936
• British Engineers and Africa, 1875–1914
• British Narratives of Exploration : Case Studies on the Self and Other
• Empire of Political Thought : Indigenous Australians and the Language of Colonial Government
• Empires in Perspective 1–10
• The English Empire in America, 1602–1658 : Beyond Jamestown
• India in the French Imagination : Peripheral Voices, 1754–1815
• Law and Imperialism : Criminality and Constitution in Colonial India and Victorian England
• Missionary Education and Empire in Late Colonial India, 1860–1920
• Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire
• Royal Patronage, Power and Aesthetics in Princely India
• Slaveholders in Jamaica : Colonial Society and Culture during the Era of Abolition
• The Theatre of Empire : Frontier Performances in America, 1750–1860
• Transoceanic Radical, William Duane : National Identity and Empire, 1760–1835
• A Wider Patriotism : Alfred Milner and the British Empire

Forthcoming titles

• Arctic Exploration in the Nineteenth Century: Discovering the Northwest Passage

  Editor: Frédéric Regard

  (April 2013)
• Baudin, Napoleon and the Exploration of Australia

  Nicole Starbuck

  (May 2013)
• Ireland and Empire, 1692–1770

  Charles Ivar McGrath

  (April 2012)
• The Quest for the Northwest Passage: Knowledge, Nation and Empire, 1576–1806

  Editor: Frédéric Regard

  (October 2012)
• Race and Identity in the Tasman World, 1769–1840

  Rachel Standfield

  (July 2012)

Download leaflet pdfs

• Empires in Perspective colour leaflet

Return to top

To place a standing order for books in this or any other series email sales@pickeringchatto.co.uk. Please include the name of each series in which you are interested and indicate whether you have already bought earlier books in the series.