The Empire in One City? Liverpool's Inconvenient Imperial Past

by Haggerty, Sheryllynne; Webster, Anthony; White, Nicholas J.

• ISBN13: 9780719078873
• ISBN10: 0719078873
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, Liverpool was frequently referred to as the "second city of the empire." Yet, the role of Liverpool within the British imperial system and the impact on the city of its colonial connections remain underplayed in recent writing on both Liverpool and the empire. However, "inconvenient" this may prove, this specially-commissioned collection of essays demonstrates that the imperial dimension deserves more prevalence in both academic and popular representations of Liverpool's past. Indeed, if Liverpool does represent the "World in One City"--the slogan for Liverpool's status as European Capital of Culture in 2008--it could be argued that this is largely down to Merseyside's long-term interactions with the colonial world, and the legacies of that imperial history. In the context of Capital of Culture year and growing interest in the relationship between British provincial cities and the British empire, this book will find a wide audience among academics, students and history enthusiasts generally.

Author Biography

Sheryllynne Haggerty is Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Nottingham. Anthony Webster is Head of Humanities at the University of Central Lancashire. Nicholas J. White is Reader in Imperial and Commonwealth History at Liverpool John Moores University.

Table of Contents

List of plates	p. vi
List of figures	p. vii
List of tables	p. viii
General editor's introduction	p. ix
Notes on contributors	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Introduction: The empire in one city?	p. 1
Liverpool, the slave trade and the British-Atlantic empire, c. 1750-75	p. 17
Liverpool and the Asian trade, 1800-50: some insights into a provincial British commercial network	p. 35
'Stirring spectacles of cosmopolitan animation': Liverpool as a diasporic city, 1825-1913	p. 55
Liverpool and South America, 1850-1930	p. 78
Collecting empire? African objects, West African trade and a Liverpool museum	p. 100
Transmitting ideas of empire: representations and celebrations in Liverpool, 1886-1953	p. 123
The maligned, the despised and the ostracised: working-class white women, interracial relationships and colonial ideologies in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Liverpool	p. 143
Liverpool shipping and the end of empire: the Ocean group in East and Southeast Asia, c. 1945-73	p. 165
Return to imperial trade? John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) Ltd as a contemporary free-standing company, 1945-2006	p. 188
Afterword: Liverpool and empire - the revolving door?	p. 210
Index	p. 229
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