Arguing about Empire Imperial Rhetoric in Britain and France, 1882-1956

Arguing about Empire is the first book to apply a comparative approach to Anglo-French imperial rhetoric - its racial underpinnings, its ethical presumptions, and the world-views it enshrined. Were French and British imperial actions justified in ways fundamentally different from concurrent diplomatic interventions beyond the confines of empire? If so, then when and why did this begin to change? Using an innovative case-study approach, Arguing aboutEmpire examines a series of crises which involved both the French and British Empires and considers how they were discussed in the public sphere. Based on extensive archival research, and written in a lively style,the volume assesses the extent to which Europe's two pre-eminent imperial powers developed comparable cultures of imperial rhetoric alongside shared practices of colonial repression.