Exhibiting the Empire: Cultures of Display and the British Empire Unavailable

Mackenzie is the dean of British imperial history, founding the Manchester Studies in Imperialism in 1984 long before the “imperial turn” in British history. Although Mackenzie’s work inclines more toward social history and less toward theory than the New Imperial History that has emerged during the last two decades, the motivating theme of the series—that “imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies”—is much at home in the contemporary literature of empire. McAleer brings to the volume considerable expertise about material culture. Together they have compiled an innovative and worthwhile collection that examines “the literal display and exhibition of empire (and the idea of empire) in the imperial metropolis” through the lens of material culture (1–2). The authors come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds—art and art history (Douglas Fordham and Eleanor Hughes), ethnomusicology (Nalini Ghuman), history (Stephanie Barczewski and Ashley Jackson),...