Beyond Empire and Nation, The Decolonization of African and Asian societies; 1930s-1970s

Year

2012

Publisher

Brill

Language

English

Pages

Link

Last Update

27-Mar-2026

Keywords

Political Science

Description

Writing history is a political activity. Generally speaking, history follows power, and the history of decolonization is no exception to this rule. Whether told from the perspective of colonizer or colonized, popular narratives of decolonization often reflect national historical frameworks, geographical boundaries, and chronologies, though motivation, logic, morality, and much else likely differ. Former colonizers had to adjust to the changed political geographies, which involved forgetting the nascent and hybrid identities of the late imperial era. The colonies that had been understood as part of the national destiny gradually became foreign. Decolonization, accompanied by the loss of colonial clout and...