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This book provides a fresh and accessible introduction to recent debates about European exploration's role in the making of the modern world. It challenges celebratory narratives of exploration, concentrating instead on its contribution to imperial and scientific agendas and its dependence on indigenous agents.

The challenge of opening Africa and Australia to British imperial influence fell to a coterie of proto-professional explorers who sought knowledge, adventure, and fame but often experienced confusion, fear, and failure. The Last Blank Spaces follows the arc of these explorations, from idea to practice, intention to outcome, myth to reality.

\"This book highlights three themes. The first is that global war between empires precipitated decolonization, creating the economic and political crises that gave colonial subjects the opportunity to seek independence. The second theme is that nation-state was not the only option pursued by anti-colonial activists. Many of them sought pan- and trans-national polities instead, but a combination of international and institutional pressures made the nation-state the standard template. The third theme is that the struggle to escape imperial subjugation and create nation-states generated widespread violence and produced huge refugee populations, leading to political problems that persist to the present day\"--Amazon.com.

Though best known as an adventurer who entered Mecca in disguise and sought the source of the White Nile, Richard Burton contributed so forcefully to his generation that he provides us with a singularly panoramic perspective of the Victorian world. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of a remarkable man and a crucial era.

Britain and Empire, 1880-1945 traces the relationship between Britain and its empire during a period when the two spheres intersected with one another to an unprecedented degree. The story starts with the imperial expansion of the late nineteenth century and ends with the Second World War, at the end of which Britain was on the brink of decolonisation. The author shows how empire came to figure into almost every important development that marked Britain¿s response to the upheavals of the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. He examines its influence on foreign policy, party politics, social reforms, cultural practices, and national identity. At the same time, he shows how domestic developments affected imperial policies. Written in an engaging and accessible manner, this book: integrates British and imperial history in a single narrative provides a useful synthesis of recent historical research in the area analyses topics ranging from ideology and culture to politics and foreign affairs contains a chronology, glossary, who¿s who and guide to further reading Britain and Empire, 1880-1945 provides an up-to-date, accessible survey, ideal for students coming to the subject for the first time.

Book review. Source: National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand Licence.

This is a social and cultural study of white settlers in Kenya and Rhodesia during the first half-century of colonial rule. It confronts the following questions: Who were these settlers? Why did they immigrate to these colonies? What differences in social origins were apparent between the two settler communities? How did they respond to the alien conditions and peoples they encountered? How far did they accommodate themselves to these new circumstances? How far did they resist? What factors shaped their responses? The first part of the study attempts to trace the processes by which settlement occurrred, with emphasis upon the social origins of the settlers and the forces which propelled them to one or the other territory. A chronological approach is employed, with alternating chapters on the two colonies which compare and contrast their courses of development over the same sequence of time. The analysis reveals that, while both colonies were settled predominantly by persons of British stock, the social backgrounds of the two immigrant communities were markedly different. The dominant element within the white population of Kenya consisted of a social stratum which is best termed gentlemanly. Rhodesia's white population, by contrast, was composed for the most part of settlers of lower middle and working class origins. These differences in the social composition of the two settler communities were determined by a variety of factors, including the geographical location of each colony, the presence or absence of mineral wealth and big game, the impact of wars and depressions, the relative size of the Indian population, the influence of chain migration, and the policies of the respective governments. The second part of the dissertation is concerned with the cultural character of these white settler communities, the manner in which they shaped their lives in response to indigenous circumstances. The analysis is organized along thematic lines, which each chapter focused upon a particular area of concern to the settler population. Despite considerable differences in social origins, the white settlers of Kenya and Rhodesia responded to the demands of colonial life in remarkably similar fashion. A pattern of behavior which was characterized by a central desire to isolate and institutionalize white settlement within a rigid set of environmental, racial, economic, and political barriers formed the basis for a common 'white settler culture'. Only within the limits of this defensive structure did the differing origins of the two colonies' settlers manifest themselves.