Liberalism, imperialism and the historical imagination : nineteenth century visions of Great Britain / by Theodore Koditschek.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Imagining Great Britain : Union, Empire, and the burden of history, 1800-1830 -- Imagining a British India : history and reconstruction of Empire -- Imagining a Greater Britain : the Macaulays and the liberal romance of Empire -- Re-imagining a Greater Britain : J.A. Froude: counter-romance and controversy -- Greater Britain and the "lesser breeds" : liberalism, race, and evolutionary history -- Indian liberals and Great Britain : the search for union through history -- Epilogue : from liberal imperialism to conservative unionism : losing the thread of progress in history.

Print version record.

This book examines the ways in which imperial agendas informed the writing of history in nineteenth-century Britain and how historical writing transformed imperial agendas. Using the published writings and personal papers of Walter Scott, J. A. Froude, James Mill, Rammohun Roy, T. B. Macaulay, E. A. Freeman, W. E. Gladstone, and J. R. Seeley among others, Theodore Koditschek sheds light on the role of the historical imagination in the establishment and legitimation of liberal imperialism. He shows how both imperialists and the imperialized were drawn to reflect back on the Empire's past as a result of the need to construct a modern, multi-national British imperial identity for a more economically expansive and enlightened present. By tracing the imperial lives and historical works of these pivotal figures, Theodore Koditschek illuminates the ways in which discourse altered practice, and vice versa, as well as how the history of Empire was continuously written and re-written.

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