Empires of the Imagination

Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, Britain evolved from a substantial international power yet relative artistic backwater into a global superpower and a leading cultural force in Europe. In this original and wide-ranging book, Hoock illuminates the manifold ways in which the culture of power and the power of culture were interwoven in this period of dramatic change. Britons invested artistic and imaginative effort to come to terms with the loss of the American colonies; to sustain the generation-long fight against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France; and to assert and legitimate their growing empire in India. Demonstrating how Britain fought international culture wars over prize antiquities from the Mediterranean and Near East, the book explores how Britons appropriated ancient cultures from the Mediterranean, the Near East, and India, and casts a fresh eye on iconic objects such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon Marbles.

ISBN 1861978596   Pages 512 ISBN13 9781861978592 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1157 Publisher Profile Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Profile Books Ltd   Height (mm) 246 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 171 Publication date 04 Feb 2010   Spine width (mm) 48 DEWEY 941.073   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

Introduction		Sinews of power and empires of the imagination		1
1		The art of remembering and forgetting		48
2		Transatlantic journeys		83
3		'Pretensions to permanency'		132
4		Modern heroes		162
5		The spoils of war		219
6		Antique diplomacy		243
7		Antiquities of India		288
8		Surveying the empire		315
9		Pomp and circumstance in London		353
Conclusions		Cultural politics, state, war, and empire		380
Epilogue		Empires imagined at the Great Exhibition		386
		Notes		395
		Index		489

"An excellent book, brimming with insights and splendid illustrations ... a sumptuous treat indeed" - Daily Telegraph"Terrific" - Financial Times"Chock full of vivid case studies ... beautifully done" - Spectator"An ambitious, authoritative survey of British visual culture in an age of imperial ascent" - Guardian

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