The empire in one city?

Liverpool's inconvenient imperial past

Sheryllynne Haggerty, Anthony Webster, Nicholas J. White

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780719078873
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526118035
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

From the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, Liverpool was frequently referred to as the 'second city of the empire'. Yet, the role of Liverpool within the British imperial system and the impact on the city of its colonial connections remain underplayed in recent writing on both Liverpool and the empire. However, 'inconvenient' this may prove, this specially-commissioned collection of essays demonstrates that the imperial dimension deserves more prevalence in both academic and popular representations of Liverpool's past. Indeed, if Liverpool does represent the 'World in One City' – the slogan for Liverpool's status as European Capital of Culture in 2008 – it could be argued that this is largely down to Merseyside's long-term interactions with the colonial world, and the legacies of that imperial history.

In the context of Capital of Culture year and growing interest in the relationship between British provincial cities and the British empire, this book will find a wide audience amongst academics, students and history enthusiasts generally.

Table of contents

• Front matter
• Contents
• List of plates
• List of figures
• List of tables
• General editor's introduction
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: The empire in one city?
• Liverpool, the slave trade and the British-Atlantic empire, c. 1750–75
• Liverpool and the Asian trade, 1800–50: some insights into a provincial British commercial network
• ‘Stirring spectacles of cosmopolitan animation’: Liverpool as a diasporic city, 1825–1913
• Liverpool and South America, 1850–1930
• Collecting empire? African objects, West African trade and a Liverpool museum
• Transmitting ideas of empire: representations and celebrations in Liverpool, 1886–1953
• The maligned, the despised and the ostracised: working-class white women, interracial relationships and colonial ideologies in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Liverpool
• Liverpool shipping and the end of empire: the Ocean group in East and Southeast Asia, c. 1945–73
• Return to imperial trade? John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) Ltd as a contemporary free-standing company, 1945–2006
• Afterword: Liverpool and empire – the revolving door?
• Index