Nabobs: Empire and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain

by Tillman W. Nechtman

Overview

Tillman Nechtman explores the relationship between Britain and its empire in the late eighteenth century through the controversy that surrounded employees of the East India Company. Labelled as ‘nabobs' by their critics, Company employees returned from India, bringing the subcontinent's culture with them – souvenirs like clothing, foods, jewels, artwork, and animals. To the nabobs, imperial keepsakes were a way of narrating their imperial biographies, lives that braided Britain and India together. However, their domestic critics preferred to see Britain as distinct from empire and so saw the nabobs as a dangerous community of people who sought to reverse the currents of imperialism and to bring the empire home. Drawing on cultural, material, and visual history, this book captures a far wider picture of the fascinating controversy and sheds considerable new light on the tensions and contradictions inherent in British national identity in the late eighteenth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521763530
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/12/2010
Pages:	282
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tillman W. Nechtman is Assistant Professor of British and British Imperial History at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is the author of numerous articles on British imperial history.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations vi

Acknowledgements viii

List of abbreviations xiii

Introduction: an imperial footprint 1

1 An India of the mind: Englightenment and empire in eighteenth-century South Asia 22

2 "Flesh and Blood cannot bear it": private lives and imperial taxonomies in late-eighteenth-century British India 60

3 The nabob controversy: debating global imperialism 92

4 Imperial clutter: the nabob controversy in the public sphere 140

5 Nabobinas: gender, luxury, race, and empire 185

Conclusion 221

Bibliography 239

Index 260

Editorial Reviews

"...a lucid, thoughtful, and often provocative study of the politically charged and socially contested situation of the nabob in eighteenth-century Britain." -Douglas M. Peers, H-Albion

"Written in a clear and engaging manner, this book will be accessible and informative for lay readers." -Michael H. Fisher, Journal of World History

"thorough and sparkling study of imperial discontents." -Journal of British Studies, Kathleen Wilson

From the Publisher