Illustrating Empire: A Visual History of British Imperialism

by Ashley Jackson (Editor), David Tomkins (Editor)

Through more than 150 striking and original images from the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Library, Illustrating Empire tells the history of the British Empire from the age of discovery through World War II. This wealth of visual material was used to promote, record, and celebrate the development of the Empire, which by 1922 included more than thirteen million square miles—or almost a quarter of the Earth. The captions that accompany the illustrations reveal the narrative of the Empire and unlock the history and meaning behind the images. 

Following a general introduction that provides an overarching discussion of the many facets of the Empire’s long history, the book is structured around eight major themes: emigration and settlement; imperial authority; exploration and knowledge; trade and commerce; travel and communications; popular culture; exhibitions and jubilees; and politics. Along the way, Illustrating Empire examines the significance of media in conveying and creating ideas about empire and the non-European world. It also provides a clear summary of debates regarding the significance of empire in British culture. 

This informative and accessible visual history represents a significant contribution to the literature on culture and empire and will be an engaging and useful source of historical information for general readers and scholars alike.

Genres: Art, British Literature

216 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2011

Reviews

[Priya · Rating 5 out of 5]

If someone had invented a book just for me to have/read over the holidays, this would be it. I loved this book. It's beautiful, has exactly the sort of thing that amuses me and counts as "work". A couple of things:

1. There are illustrations of posters produced about the colonies and it's important to remember that for a lot of working class people in the colonial centre, these posters (and food packaging, adverts, newspaper inserts, etc) would be the only way they would know about the colonies. The book does an excellent job of illustrating (!) the types of meanings that were produced and spread by and through these pictorial depictions.

2. The connections between the colonizers and the colonized are drawn out here--many British households had spices and teas from South Asia, India (especially) was seen as a "jewel", new cuisines were invented as the colonizers and colonized tastes merged, and so on. Colonialism was oppressive and has had consequences people still suffer from but there were also moments of connections and the formations of new meanings (and stuff).

Oh well, no. 3: it's about pop culture and politics. <3

[Yooperprof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Outstanding quality reproductions. I assigned this book in a 3rd year college course on the history of British Imperialism, and I believe that my students were able to learn a great deal from this kind of "primary source" collection.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photos were very visual, colourful and almost told a story of their own.