An Empire on Trial: Race, Murder, and Justice Under British Rule, 1870-1935

An Empire on Trial is the first book to explore the issue of interracial homicide in the British Empire during its height - examining these incidents and the prosecution of such cases in each of seven colonies scattered throughout the world. It uncovers and analyzes the tensions of empire that underlay British rule and delves into how the problem of maintaining a liberal empire manifested itself in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The work demonstrates the importance of the processes of criminal justice to the history of the empire and the advantage of a trans-territorial approach to understanding the complexities and nuances of its workings. An Empire on Trial is of interest to those concerned with race, empire, or criminal justice, and to historians of modern Britain or of colonial Australia, India, Kenya, or the Caribbean. Political and postcolonial theorists writing on liberalism and empire, or race and empire, will also find this book invaluable.

Author: Martin J. Wiener
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/01/2008
Pages: 255
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780521735070

Review Citation(s):
Choice 01/01/2010

About the Author
Wiener, Martin J.: - Martin J. Wiener is Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of History at Rice University. He is the author of numerous works, including English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit 1850-1980, Reconstructing the Criminal, and Men of Blood. Dr Wiener is a past President of the North American Conference on British Studies and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.