Fiona Paisley

Kirsty Reid

This collection brings much-needed focus to the vibrancy and vitality of minority and marginal writing about empire, and to their implications as expressions of embodied contact between imperial power and those negotiating its consequences from "below." The chapters explore how less powerful and less privileged actors in metropolitan and colonial societies within the British Empire have made use of the written word and of the power of speech, public performance, and street politics. This book breaks new ground by combining work about marginalized figures from within Britain as well as counterparts in the colonies, ranging from published sources such as indigenous newspapers to ordinary and everyday writings including diaries, letters, petitions, ballads, suicide notes, and more. Each chapter engages with the methodological implications of working with everyday scribblings and asks what these alternate modernities and histories mean for the larger critique of the "imperial archive" that has shaped much of the most interesting writing on empire in the past decade.

Writing the Empire from Below

Critical Perspectives on Colonialism

The late 1920s saw an extraordinary protest by an Australian Aboriginal man on the streets of London. Standing outside Australia House, cloaked in tiny skeletons, Anthony Martin Fernando condemned the failure of British rule in his country. Fernando is believed to be the first Aboriginal person to protest conditions in Australia from the streets of Europe. His various forms of action, from pamphlets on the streets of Rome to the famous Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, distinguish this lone protester as a unique Aboriginal activist of his time. Drawn from an extensive search in archives from Australia and Europe, this is the first full-length study of Fernandos life and the self-professed mission that lasted half his adult life.

A M Fernando in Australia and Europe

The Lone Protestor

Sources and Methods in Histories of Colonialism provides an in-depth study of the relationships between archives, knowledge and power. Exploring a diverse range of examples and surveying the now substantial scholarly literatures on the functions and scope of the ‘imperial archive’, it facilitates a deeper understanding of the challenges of working with a range of specific source genres within imperial and colonial archives. Covering the late eighteenth century to the present day and drawing on material from a range of modern empires including those established by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States, chapters discuss themes such as the emergence of photography as an archival tool, the use of oral history in histories of colonialism and the ways in which the state informs the archive and vice versa. This book considers the ways in which newer ways of thinking about the past have challenged more traditional views of ‘the archive’, provoking questions about what archives are and where their conceptual, geographical and chronological boundaries lie. Examining a wide selection of source material including government papers, censuses, petitions and case files and providing both an overarching introduction to the subject and close analysis of specific case studies, this book will be essential reading for students of imperial and colonial history.

Approaching the Imperial Archive

Sources and Methods in Histories of Colonialism

Pamela Scully

Over the past two decades, transnational history has become an established term describing approaches to the writing of world or global history that emphasise movement, dynamism and diversity. This book investigates the emergence of the 'transnational' as an approach, its limits, and parameters. It focuses particular attention on the contributions of postcolonial and feminist studies in reformulating transnational historiography as a move beyond the national to one focusing on oceans, the movement of people, and the contributions of the margins. It ends with a consideration of developing approaches such as translocalism. The book considers the new kinds of history that need to be written now that the transnational perspective has become widespread. Providing an accessible and engaging chronology of the field, it will be key reading for students of historiography and world history.

Writing Transnational History

Anna Cole

Showcasing some of the latest and most interesting work in Australia on gender and crosscultural history, this unique collection offers a diverse group of essays about the complex roles white women played in Australian Indigenous histories.

Fiona Paisley

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