An ABC of Queen Victoria's Empire: Or a Primer of Conquest, Dissent and Disruption

by Antoinette Burton

Overview

An ABC of Queen Victoria's Empireoffers a provocative rewriting of Mrs. Ernest Ames' ABCs for Baby Patriots (1899). Whimsically illustrated for the nursery or primary school child, Ames' book demonstrates how deeply imperialism reached into popular culture during Victoria's reign.

This book presents a rather darker view of Victoria's empire, beginning with the wars in Afghanistan and ending with Zam-Zammeh, the large-bore cannon that Kipling's hero sat astride at the opening of his 1901 novel, Kim. It signposts some of the key events, concepts, places and people that shaped the turbulent ground of empire across the long 19th century, providing a serious counterweight to the notion of imperial conquest as child's play.

With each letter accompanied by a crisp yet historically nuanced account of its subject, this unique account is the perfect primer for students taking courses on global, imperial and British history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474230162
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/12/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Antoinette Burton is Professor of History at the University of Illinois, USA. She has written widely on modern Britain and empire. Her most recent publications include A Primer for Teaching World History (2012) and Brown Over Black: Race and the Politics of Postcolonial Citation (2012).

Table of Contents

Afghan Wars
Bold Fenian Men
Convict women
Dagga
Eyre, Jane
Famine
Gandhi, Mohandas K.
Hosay
Indenture
Jihad
Kingitanga
Lascar
Morant Bay
Native Claim-making
Opium
Proclamation of the Irish Republic
Queensland sugar
Red River Resistance
Syphilis
Tatya Tope
Urabi
Vande Mataram
Winston Churchill
Xhosaland
Yakub Khan
Zam-Zammah

Editorial Reviews

A lively, original and thought-provoking book. Its alphabetic format is inspired - not only is the format easy to read, it also reminds us of the huge sprawl of empire while drawing out the common themes of violence and coercion that underlay colonial and imperial formations. An excellent textbook for courses on British imperial history.
Isabel Hofmeyr, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

The book is undoubtedly a triumph. Professor Burton's record as a prolific author on many aspects of the British Empire and on how best to teach it makes her an extremely appropriate person to have produced this book, and if it serves its purpose in attracting ever more people to the study of the British Empire, and in allowing for a more nuanced understanding of it, then she and her fellow contributors will have performed a valuable service.
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History

This is a playful, but decidedly serious book. Whereas Victorian Alphabet books were invariably designed to help children learn their ABCs through patriotic, empire associations, this one is for adults seeking to reappraise the imperial past. It turns the older tradition on its head not only through honest and incisive appraisals of people and events in the British Empire, but also by dealing with topics barely possible in the originals - such as failures in colonial warfare, drugs, and sexual diseases. Students and others will find it a fascinating and valuable take on former empire propaganda. Antoinette Burton and her collaborators are to be congratulated on a clever idea, expertly executed.
Professor John M. MacKenzie, Emeritus Professor of Imperial History, Lancaster University, UK

From the Publisher