Sites of Imperial Memory

Europe's great colonial empires have long been a thing of the past, but the memories they generated are still all around us. They have left deep imprints on the different memory communities that were affected by the processes of establishing, running and dismantling these systems of imperial rule, and they are still vibrant and evocative today. This volume brings together a collection of innovative and fresh studies exploring different sites of imperial memory - those conceptual and real places where the memories of former colonial rulers and of former colonial subjects have crystallised into a lasting form. The volume explores how memory was built up, re-shaped and preserved across different empires, continents and centuries. It shows how it found concrete expression in stone and bronze, how it adhered to the stories that were told and retold about great individuals and how it was suppressed, denied and neglected. Using the seminal concept of the lieu de mémoire established by the French historian Pierre Nora, this volume introduces the reader to some of the most striking boulders that lie strewn across the vast landscape of imperial and post-imperial memory. With case studies taken from the British, French, German, Dutch, Japanese, Habsburg and Russian empires and examples of memory sites ranging from monuments and photographs to missionaries, conquerors, war criminals and botanists, Sites of imperial memory provides a fascinating, varied and truly global introduction to a topic of lasting historical and political importance. The book will be of great interest to anyone studying the legacies of empire and the importance of memory as a historical force.