European Empires and the People: Popular Responses to Imperialism in France, Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy

This is the first book to survey in comparative form the transmission of imperial ideas to the public in six European countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chapters, focusing on France, Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy, provide parallel studies of the manner in which colonial ambitions and events in the respective European empires were given wider popular visibility. The international group of contributors, who are all scholars working at the cutting edge of these fields, place their work in the context of governmental policies, the economic bases of imperial expansion, major events such as wars of conquest, the emergence of myths of heroic action in exotic contexts, religious and missionary impulses, as well as the new media which facilitated such popular dissemination. Among these media were the press, international exhibitions, popular literature, educational institutions and methods, ceremonies, church sermons and lectures, monuments, paintings and much else. Some attempt is made to consider public responses, in terms of voting patterns, government popularity or the lack of it, as well as in the spheres of economic and social development bound up with industrialization, commerce, employment, and emigration. Fascinating trans-national similarities, as well as significant differences, emerge from this approach, nonetheless revealing that imperialism often constituted a dominant ideology in these countries. The book is the result of considerable discussion among the six authors resulting in valuable cross-referencing of ideas among the various examples. The editor provides an introduction which offers insights into such a comparative approach, while an afterword also draws out some of the conclusions and suggestions for further research.