This is the first emotional history of the British Empire. Joanna Lewis explores how David Livingstone's death tied together British imperialism and Victorian humanitarianism and inserted it into popular culture. Sacrifice and death; Superman like heroism; the devotion of Africans; the cruelty of Arab slavery; and the sufferings of the 'ordinary man', generated waves of sentimental feeling. These powerful myths, images and feelings incubated down the generations - through grand ceremonies, further exploration, humanitarianism, Christian teaching, narratives of masculine endeavour and heroic biography - inspiring colonial rule in Africa, white settler pioneers, missionaries and Africans. Empire of Sentiment demonstrates how this central African story shaped Britain's romantic perception of itself as a humane power overseas when the colonial reality fell far short. Through sentimental humanitarianism, Livingstone helped sustain a British Empire in Africa that remained profoundly Victorian, polyphonic and ideological; whilst always understood at home as proudly liberal on race.

An innovative study proposing a new history of the British Empire in Africa by exploring the emotion culture of imperialism.

About the Author
Joanna Lewis is an Associate Professor in the Department of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, having previously studied at the University of Cambridge after winning a Thomas and Elizabeth Williams Scholarship for students with a first class degree, and first-generation to attend university. Her research is focused on British imperial history in Africa where she has lived and worked periodically for over twenty years. Other lecturing posts include Cambridge, Durham and The School of Oriental and African Studies. In 2013 she organised the only international conference to be held in Africa bringing together British and US specialists with African historians, debating colonial rule and its aftermath.

Reviews
'An enthralling analysis of the cult of Livingstone and what it tells us about Victorian imperialism, manly heroism and, above all, modern memory.' Joanna Bourke, Times Higher Education
'Lewis (international history, London School of Economics) situates the 1873 death of missionary David Livingstone in the context of moral imperialism and the impending division of Africa into European spheres of influence. Recommended.' S. L. Smith, Choice
'... [a] worthy contribution to the everburgeoning catalogue of Livingstoniana. Empire of Sentiment: The Death of Livingstone and the Myth of Victorian Imperialism manages to carve out new territory, in two ways in particular. First, Lewis uses the outpouring of grief that ensued when the news of Livingstone's death reached Britain ... to explore how emotion provided a key underpinning for the British Empire. Second, she provides a fresh look at the posthumous myth that came to surround Livingstone, situating it in the context of a twentieth-century colonial southern Africa that relied increasingly heavily on white supremacy enshrined in law, as well as in a postcolonial Africa in which black African rulers sought to shape Livingstone's legacy for their own ends. Both of these strands are written about in lively and often elegant prose, at the same time as they convey a staggering amount of detail that is clearly the product of prodigious research.' Stephanie Barczewski, The American Historical Review
'The especial value of what Lydon and Lewis offer rests in their detailed historical accounting: the particularity of the circumstances they survey in Australia and Africa, respectively. Both monographs contribute to a larger and more complex history of how feeling was manipulated across the British Empire.' Jason R. Rudy, Victorian Studies



Book Information
ISBN 9781316648230
Author Joanna Lewis
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 451g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 153mm * 17mm