ANN: New and Forthcoming Publications

Ellen Boucher, Empire’s Children: Child Emigration, Welfare, and the Decline of the British World, 1869-1967 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2014; recently released in paperback)

 

Between 1869 and 1967, government-funded British charities sent nearly 100,000 British children to start new lives in the settler empire. This pioneering study tells the story of the rise and fall of child emigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Rhodesia. In the mid-Victorian period, the book reveals, the concept of a global British race had a profound impact on the practice of charity work, the evolution of child welfare, and the experiences of poor children. During the twentieth century, however, rising nationalism in the dominions, alongside the emergence of new, psychological theories of child welfare, eroded faith in the 'British world' and brought child emigration into question. Combining archival sources with original oral histories, Empire's Children not only explores the powerful influence of empire on child-centered social policy, it also uncovers how the lives of ordinary children and families were forever transformed by imperial forces and settler nationalism.

Harshan Kumarasingham (ed.), Constitution-Making in Asia: Declonisation and State-Building in the Aftermath of the British Empire (New York: Routledge, 2016)

 

Britain’s main imperial possessions in Asia were granted independence in the 1940s and 1950s and needed to craft constitutions for their new states. Invariably the indigenous elites drew upon British constitutional ideas and institutions regardless of the political conditions that prevailed in their very different lands. Many Asian nations called upon the services of Englishman and Law Professor Sir Ivor Jennings to advise or assist their own constitution-making. Although he was one of the twentieth century’s most prominent constitutional scholars, his opinion and influence were often controversial and remain so due to his advocating British norms in Asian form. This book examines the process of constitutional formation in the era of decolonisation and state-building in Asia. It sheds light upon the influence and participation of Jennings in particular and British ideas in general on democracy and institutions across the Asian continent. Critical case studies on India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Nepal – all linked by Britain and Jennings – assess the distinctive methods and outcomes of constitution-making and how British ideas fared in these major states. The book offers chapters on the Westminster model in Asia, human rights, nationalism, ethnic politics, federalism, foreign influence, decolonisation, authoritarianism, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, and the power and influence of key political actors. Taking an original stance on constitution-making in Asia after British rule, it also puts forward ideas of contemporary significance for Asian states and other emerging democracies engaged in constitution-making, regime change and seeking to understand their colonial past. The first political, historical or constitutional analysis comparing Asia’s experience with its indelible British constitutional legacy, this book is a critical resource on state-building and constitution-making in Asia following independence. It will appeal to students and scholars of world history, public law and politics.

With their power to create a sense of proximity and empathy, photographs have long been a crucial means of exchanging ideas between peoples across the globe. This book explores the role of photography in shaping ideas about race and difference from the 1840s to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights. Focusing on Australian experience in a global context, a rich selection of case studies show how photographic encounters between Aboriginals, missionaries, scientists, photographers and writers fuelled international debates about morality, law, politics and human rights. While the camera has been extensively analysed as a weapon of authority, surveillance and control, this volume uncovers a story of photography as a more complex social force. Drawing on new archival research, it is essential reading for students and scholars of race, visuality and the histories of empire and human rights.