Empires of the Imagination

Politics, War, and the Arts in the British World, 1750–1850

Holger Hoock

ISBN 1861978596

ISBN 13 9781861978592

February 2010

Price £30.00

Hardback, 544 pp.

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Subject: History

Between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, Britain evolved from a substantial international power yet relative artistic backwater into a global superpower and a leading cultural force in Europe. In this original and wide-ranging book, Hoock illuminates the manifold ways in which the culture of power and the power of culture were interwoven in this period of dramatic change.

Britons invested artistic and imaginative effort to come to terms with the loss of the American colonies; to sustain the generation-long fight against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France; and to assert and legitimate their growing empire in India. In exploring how Britain fought international culture wars over prize antiquities from the Mediterranean and Near East, and appropriated ancient cultures from India, too, the book casts a fresh eye on iconic objects such as the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon and Amaravati Marbles.

To explore the themes of Empires of the Imagination further, see the rich media content at: www.holgerhoock.com/books/empires.

‘beautifully produced, closely argued and deeply researched…an important, weighty book. It deserves close scrutiny and a warm reception.’
— Professor Denis Judd, BBC History Magazine

‘[A] bold, provocative and ambitious book ... it presents a wide perspective on an exceptionally significant era for the British world.’
— Ludmilla Jordanova, Professor of Modern History, King’s College, London