Imperial Leather chronicles the dangerous liaisons between gender, race and class that shaped British imperialism and its bloody dismantling. Spann...
read full description
reviews
Aug 21, 2010
meeners
rated it: 
there's some brilliant food for thought here. deducting one star because the author does not use serial commas. ha! just kidding. (...MAYBE??) it's really because i remain somewhat ambivalent about psychoanalysis in/of/through history (while still acknowledging its usefulness). her rereading of freud's oedipal theory is freaking awesome, at least. and even die-hard anti-psychoanalysis readers should be able to appreciate her main assertion that "race, gender and class are not distinct realm
More...
Feb 22, 2011
Scott
rated it: 
This is a very dense book (not so much in the difficulty of language as the sheer amount of information presented) and really gives a great, thorough investigation of issues of race and gender and class in relation to colonialism and all kinds of nationalism. The chapter on soap ads of Victorian England was particularly interesting to me as pop culture is something I am very interested in. There is also a lot of great discussion of fetishism and nationality that I found very interesting after
More...
Aug 02, 2011
Malcolm
rated it:
This is a sophisticated analysis of the complex interrelationship of class, gender and race in British colonial and imperial settings, including the end of empire. McClintock draws on feminist, psychoanalytic, socialist and postcolonial theory to develop an argument we may not agree with but cannot ignore. Her analysis of the competing British, Afrikaaner and black colonial and anti-colonial discourses takes understandings of South African history to new places, and has much wider general resona
More...
Jan 25, 2009
allison
rated it: 
clearly a favorite at the university of minnesota - i have read sizable chunks of this book for three different classes for both my major & my minor! initially assigned to me by two of the best professors i've ever had, 'imperial leather' is probably overall the best and most engaging text i've read critiquing imperialism and colonialism in the 19th century. mcclintock employs some pretty masterful intersectionality in her analysis. really a great read and extremely accessible despite it's rathe
More...
May 26, 2008
T.J.
rated it:
Oh God, Anne McClintock.
Where do I begin?
Well, the book itself is complex, clever, well-thought out, and detailed. Her premise linking colonial domination and cleanliness is a masterful concept.
However, part of the logic, rationale, reasoning and argument in this book just strikes me as batshit insane. I know I'm a (future) historian, this literature analysis is fine when dealing just with books. But using lit crit techniques on historical texts and making More...
Where do I begin?
Well, the book itself is complex, clever, well-thought out, and detailed. Her premise linking colonial domination and cleanliness is a masterful concept.
However, part of the logic, rationale, reasoning and argument in this book just strikes me as batshit insane. I know I'm a (future) historian, this literature analysis is fine when dealing just with books. But using lit crit techniques on historical texts and making More...
Dec 23, 2007
Adam
rated it:
A very interesting book that served as a first pass for me into critical theory, post-colonial studies & feminist studies. The most important takeaway for me regards the interplay between psycholanalysis & more historical and collectivist kinds of analysis, like political science. On the one hand, the latter are conditioned by the stuff of psychology: cultural assumptions, modes of production & distribution, gender hierarchies, racial & sexual anxieties color putatively factual macro-disciplin
More...
Jul 11, 2010
Caitlin
rated it:
read chapters 3 & 4 on Arthur Munby & Hannah Cullwick and temporal fetishism respectively. Compellingly written, concisely contextualized, and deftly theorized accounts of a cultural relationship and psychoanytic history.
Aug 13, 2009
Steven
rated it:
This has become an old book, but it's just as exciting today as it was fifteen years ago. It has inspired numerous imitators, but very few equals.
Feb 24, 2008
Emily
rated it:
Don't let the dated, dissertation-y title turn you off. This book is awesome: an original, impressively-researched (even for an academic tone), and actually pleasurable-to-read analysis of racist Victorian soap advertisements, the fixation of bourgeois men on washerwomen (her chapters on maidservant Hannah Cullwick -- who spent forty years in a secret relationship with her "master," posing for photographs in blackface and chains and keeping a diary detailing for him her daily work --
More...
May 16, 2009
Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest by Anne McClintock (1995)
Dec 06, 2008
Melanie
rated it:
Interesting premise and quite helpful for thesis research, but it tended to be focused on oddly peripheral texts and figures, which I didn't find so helpful.
Oct 02, 2008
What can I say about a book that combines socialist, feminist, post-colonial, and psychoanalytical theory into a 400 page abomination that makes the reader want to light him/herself on fire? Seriously, this book mentioned castration anxiety and phallocentrism so fucking much that I was almost tempted to cut off my own genitals with a butter knife if it would shut the author up. Newsflash Anne, not everything in life revolves around penises, sex, and wanting to hump your mother.
Sep 18, 2007
Erika
rated it:
If books were mythological characters (and Anne McClintock would certainly have something to say on that subject) then Imperial Leather would be my Helen, the book that launched a thousand hours of thesis research and an unhealthy obsession with Victorian BDSM. McClintock's background as a literary scholar allows her to attack her material from a fresh and subtly controversial perspective, which makes for an engaging contribution to the larger historical discourse.
Aug 23, 2010
Jade
rated it:
Great book! I use it for my scholarship. Excellent use of Freudian concepts, and makes psycho analysis relevant for today's reader. I loved the fetish section and the power exchange. Beautiful.
Apr 21, 2008
Lauren
rated it:
Not a book I would usually read. But! Very much altered the way I think about imperialism. A very important book for those interested in British history.
Mar 08, 2008
Angel
rated it:
One of the books I had to read for postcolonial lit. course in grad school. We used it to put some of the literary works we read in class into context.
Mar 20, 2011
Shannon
rated it:
Good teaching book--the pears soap images make for a really interesting class discussion.
Mar 28, 2008
Leigh
rated it:
Maybe it's really 3 books, but what an incredible map of colonialism-as-spectacle.
Feb 12, 2012
Feb 11, 2012
Feb 11, 2012
Feb 04, 2012
Feb 03, 2012
Feb 02, 2012
