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Scandal and secrecy in the history of the nineteenth-century British Empire
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Wilkinson, Callie (2022) Scandal and secrecy in the history of the nineteenth-century British Empire. The Historical Journal, 65 (2). pp. 545-569. doi:10.1017/S0018246X21000066 ISSN 0018-246X.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X21000066
Abstract
For historians of empire, scandals provide a useful starting point for investigating how the operations of imperial power were contested and reworked in moments of crisis. Yet, existing scholarship on imperial scandal consists mostly of case-studies that do not always reflect on the larger trend of which they are a part. This review draws on six accounts of imperial scandals to produce a general picture of the characteristics and functions of scandals in the historiography of the nineteenth-century British empire. What this comparison suggests is that imperial scandals possessed distinctive stakes and seem, as a result, to have represented periodic ruptures in longer-term patterns of local silence and complicity. Scandals, if used cautiously, can therefore provide evidence to support ongoing discussions about the logic of colonial concealment. At the same time, scandals also remind us that publicity is not a simple cure-all. By including a wider range of actors and non-governmental sources, future studies of scandal might elucidate the political limits of transparency, as well as exploring how imperial subjects negotiated gendered and racialized access to public and political platforms.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Great Britain -- Colonies -- History -- 19th century, Imperialism -- History -- 19th century, Scandals -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Political corruption -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 19th century, Sex -- Political aspects -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Historical Journal | ||||||||
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0018-246X | ||||||||
Official Date: | March 2022 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 65 | ||||||||
Number: | 2 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 545-569 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1017/S0018246X21000066 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This article has been published in a revised form in The Historical Journal https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal. This version is published under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND. No commercial re-distribution or re-use allowed. Derivative works cannot be distributed. © Cambridge University Press 2021 | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Copyright Holders: | Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 18 January 2021 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 19 January 2021 | ||||||||
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