The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century [Paperback]

Kathleen Wilson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415158966 | ISBN-13: 978-0415158961 | Publication Date: November 10, 2002

Rooted in a period of vigorous exploration and colonialism, The Island Race: Englishness, empire and gender in the eighteenth century is an innovative study of the issues of nation, gender and identity. Wilson bases her analysis on a wide range of case studies drawn both from Britain and across the Atlantic and Pacific worlds.

Creating a colourful and original colonial landscape, she considers topics such as:

* sodomy
* theatre
* masculinity
* the symbolism of Britannia
* the role of women in war.

Wilson shows the far-reaching implications that colonial power and expansion had upon the English people's sense of self, and argues that the vaunted singularity of English culture was in fact constituted by the bodies, practices and exchanges of peoples across the globe. Theoretically rigorous and highly readable, The Island Race will become a seminal text for understanding the pressing issues that it confronts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Elegantly written and handsomely produced ... this is an important book that specialists and nonspecialists alike will find rewarding.' - American Historical Review

'Kathleen Wilson's detailed and lively study is ... theoretically rigorous and exemplary in its interdisciplinary approach, encompassing appropriate analysis of drama and poetry as well as a range of extremely well-chosen and intriguing prints and paintings ... This is a book which will appeal to scholars in a wide range of disciplines ... her work fills the reader with renewed enthusiasm for her subject.' - European Journal of English Studies

About the Author

Kathleen Wilson is Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has written widely on empire and the politics of culture in eighteenth century Britain. Her book, The Sense of People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England 1715-1785 (1995), was the winner of the Jon Ben Snow Prize for British Studies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (November 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415158966
• ISBN-13: 978-0415158961
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #197,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Contribution, February 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (Paperback)

I must take issue with the reviewer from "Marseilles" regarding his or her accusation that the "Island Race" is more about twenty-first century political correctness than eighteenth-century history. Should the reviewer have actually read the book, or the sources the work consulted, or be at all well-versed in eighteenth-century history, he or she would know that one does not have to superimpose questions about gender, sexuality, or identity on eighteenth-century texts. In fact, as Wilson has masterfully demonstrated, these preoccupations were central to eighteenth-century thinkers. If you read extensively from period sources, you will see that citizens of Britain in the 18th century were quite worried about how their expanding Empire would impact British Idenity and the ways in which race, gender, sexuality played a part in their self-definition as bastions of "civilization" and "order" over chaos and unrestrained sexuality. This isn't something Wilson invented to be "trendy". Rather, she's at the forefront of a revolution in history whereby these questions, so important to people of the time period she examined and yet dismissed as trivial by historians of the nineteenth and twentieth century, become crucial to our understanding of what national identity meant to ordinary people-then and now. I think it's important people who really want to understand history keep that in mind.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant History, February 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (Paperback)

I have to disagree with the author of the other review. Kathleen Wilson's book is a superb addition to the history of British imperialism, nationality, and gender. To call the historicity "trendy" is to overlook the massive archival research that Prof. Wilson did. It is a wonderful enquiry that shows the changes wrought by modernity and the eighteenth century. Further, the book is beautifully written with careful, non-jargony prose. Her work, along with Linda Colley, Colin Kidd, and others, has blown the lid off of old notions of nationhood and empire.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Britons beyond Britain, February 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (Paperback)

This is a perfect complement to L. Colley's BRITONS! Wilson adds a great deal to our understanding of British identity in these crucial years. By looking to the edges and images of empire she is able to show how Britishness was created and defined far from the island of Great Britain. This book is beautifully written and forcefully argued and was extremely popular with my students last year. The idea that Captain Cook, the Theatre, or the navy are politically correct is silly. Perhaps including women in an account of the 1700s is just too modern for some.