| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £7.40
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Imperial Bodies: The Physical Experience of the Raj, C.1800-1947 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £7.40, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
′Collingham′s work on the physical experience of the British is a remarkable piece of research and analysis. Perhaps the most extraordinary part of the work is her section at the end of the book on the "Social Body" where she describes the new tasks (mostly not undertaken) that confronted the British understanding of their bodies as the moment of Independence of India and Pakistan loomed.′ Gene Irschick, University of California at Berkeley
"its ambition is to be applauded" Mark Harrison, University of Oxford
′Lively and insightful.′ Times Literary Supplement
′A first–rate read ... What makes Imperial Bodies such fun to delve into is the mass of fascinating social detail that its author has uncovered and assembled; by turns medical, biological, culinary, sartorial, sexual, even scatological, drawn from sources as diverse as advertisements for soft flannels in The Englishman, Chota Sahib′s Camp Recipes for Camp People (Madras, 1890) and the Whipping Bill of 1864. In sum, a fine body of work.′ The Spectator
′Beautifully written, this history of the body during the Raj is a telling antidote to the traditional imperial histories of the British occupation of India. Weaving analytical and empirical knowledge E.M. Collingham produces a very readable and at times shocking history of British arrogance and ignorance of Indian cultures and histories ... It is a remarkable book, one that reaches well beyond an academic audience to all of us concerned with the trends behind the cultural and social inequalities and confusions with which we continue to struggle.′ Development
′Using this evolving parade of the colonial presence, Cambridge academic E.M. Collingham provides a fascinating sweep of Anglo–Indian society and its attitudes to a variety of topics, among them the home, dress, food, cleanliness, sexuality, and servants.′ The Natal Witness
"I found this book more illuminating than any previous postcolonial history, both because it sees the world that children saw – which is not far from a world that an observant doctor sees – and because it goes further in accounting for it and explaining its unique mix of lovable and repellant features than anything else I have read." International Journal of Epidemiology
"Readers will find much that is original and of interest in this book." Victorian Studies
"This is a highly readable and lucid account of a relatively new topic in imperial history and historiography and should prove of value to historians as well as scholars in a number of other disciplines." Kleio
"Well researched, clearly argued, and full of rich and interesting detail, this is a book that will be of interest to anthropologists, culture historians and scholars working in the field of colonial and post–colonial studies." Joseph S. Alter, Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute
Product Description
By the late nineteenth century, racial theory focused attention on the physique to such an extent that the body became a distinct category within official discourse, regarded as an instrument of rule. The body was used symbolically during Raj ceremonial, and even the pith helmet worn by officials was turned from a reminder of British vulnerability in the tropics into a symbol of British power.
Through an in–depth discussion of texts and practices, the body is introduced into the historical account as an active social principle: a force in the construction of social inequalities along lines of race and class. Drawing on a wide range of sources including government records, newspapers, private letters, medical handbooks and cookery books, E.M. Collingham paints a vivid picture of the life and manners of the British in India.
This important contribution to both British and imperial history will appeal to students and scholars of cultural and colonial history.
He was as lonely here as in his jungle at Boggley Wollah. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
I was amazed at how well the book reads, both as an idividual study on its own and in comparison with other texts. Well recommended to both the scholar and the enthusiast.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
