The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century

by Kathleen Wilson

Rooted in a period of vigorous exploration and colonialism, The Island Race: Englishness, empire and gender in the eighteenth century is an innovative study of the issues of nation, gender and identity. Wilson bases her analysis on a wide range of case studies drawn both from Britain and across the Atlantic and Pacific worlds.

Creating a colourful and original colonial landscape, she considers topics such as:

* sodomy
* theatre
* masculinity
* the symbolism of Britannia
* the role of women in war.

Wilson shows the far-reaching implications that colonial power and expansion had upon the English people's sense of self, and argues that the vaunted singularity of English culture was in fact constituted by the bodies, practices and exchanges of peoples across the globe. Theoretically rigorous and highly readable, The Island Race will become a seminal text for understanding the pressing issues that it confronts.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2002

Reviews

[Ash HC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won’t lie, this was dense and incredibly inaccessible even for an academic work. Yikes.

[Bethany Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough and well researched, Wilson does an excellent job supporting her thesis. That said, her writing is long, pretentious and difficult to follow.