Empire

The first of the two Longman/History Today prize-winning essays on the topic ‘Is distance lending enchantment to the view historians have of the British Empire and its legacies’.

M. Naeem Qureshi on a remnant of empire which has moved beyond being a mere repository of the Raj.

Partha Mitter looks at how tensions and cultural interchange between Indians and Britons are conveyed in the imagery of the colonial period.

At Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in June 1897, pride in the British Empire seemed at its zenith, but in a fresh look at the commemorative poems of Rudyard Kipling, Denis Judd finds the poet pointing to cracks in the imperial façade.

Sarah Foster offers a fascinating account of how Irish identity, with its sectarian implications, asserted itself in the manufacture and purchase of luxury goods.

Richard Cavendish remembers the events of May 15th, 1847.

Paul Doolan looks at the continuing controversy over Dutch 'police operations' post-1945 in Indonesia.

James Walvin on how tea, sugar and tobacco hooked Britons into a fondness for the fruits of imperial expansion.

Frank McDonough looks at recent thinking on the origins of the war of 1899-1902

Bernard Porter argues that the 'End of Empire' unravelled British domestic politics as well as her international outlook.