Ten Cities That Made an Empire
The final embers of the British Empire are dying, but its legacy remains in the lives and structures of the cities which it shaped. Here Tristram Hunt examines the stories and defining ideas of ten of the most important: Boston; Bridgetown; Dublin; Cape Town; Calcutta; Hong Kong; Bombay; Melbourne; New Delhi; and twentieth-century Liverpool.
Rejecting standard binary views of the British Empire as 'very good' or 'very bad', Hunt describes the complex processes of exchange and adaptation that collectively shaped the colonial experience - and transformed the culture, economy and identity of the British Isles.
TEN CITIES THAT MADE AN EMPIRE was published on 5th June 2014 by Allen Lane (Penguin).
“The author, who is my opposite number in the House of Commons, has produced a work of the very high standard I would have expected. It is clever, stylish, carefully balanced…and a pleasure to spend time with”
- Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and Secretary of State for Education, The Times
“Hunt is not, of course, the first politician to write a history book. But this is in a different league from fellow MPs’ efforts, being distinguished not just by its vivid detail and fluent prose, but by the sheer complexity and subtlety of its arguments.”
- Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
“It's an ingenious and timely approach… a lively and cliche-busting survey of imperial history.”
- Maya Jasanoff, Guardian
Rejecting standard binary views of the British Empire as 'very good' or 'very bad', Hunt describes the complex processes of exchange and adaptation that collectively shaped the colonial experience - and transformed the culture, economy and identity of the British Isles.
TEN CITIES THAT MADE AN EMPIRE was published on 5th June 2014 by Allen Lane (Penguin).
“The author, who is my opposite number in the House of Commons, has produced a work of the very high standard I would have expected. It is clever, stylish, carefully balanced…and a pleasure to spend time with”
- Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and Secretary of State for Education, The Times
“Hunt is not, of course, the first politician to write a history book. But this is in a different league from fellow MPs’ efforts, being distinguished not just by its vivid detail and fluent prose, but by the sheer complexity and subtlety of its arguments.”
- Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
“It's an ingenious and timely approach… a lively and cliche-busting survey of imperial history.”
- Maya Jasanoff, Guardian
