This is the first book to examine the shifting relationship between humanitarianism and the expansion, consolidation and postcolonial transformation of the Anglophone world across three centuries, from the antislavery campaign of the late eighteenth century to the role of NGOs balancing humanitarianism and human rights in the late twentieth century. Contributors explore the trade-offs between humane concern and the altered context of colonial and postcolonial realpolitik. They also showcase an array of methodologies and sources with which to explore the relationship between humanitarianism and colonialism. These range from the biography of material objects to interviews as well as more conventional archival enquiry. They also include work with and for Indigenous people whose family histories have been defined in large part by ‘humanitarian’ interventions.
Leading experts in Anglophone humanitarianism across some three hundred examine the relationship between humanitarianism, empire, postcolonialism, transnational and global human rights in and beyond the British World.
Arvustused
'This collective book constitutes a crucial contribution to the historiography of both humanitarianism and imperialism, and participates in shedding light on the highly complex and contradictory nature of humanitarianism in the Anglophone world.' Lauriane Simony, French Journal of British Studies -- .
Introduction: Selective humanity: Three centuries of Anglophone
humanitarianism, empire and transnationalism Trevor Burnard, Joy Damousi
and Alan Lester
Part I: Transatlantic humanitarianism, 17601838
1 Anthony Benezet: A Short History of Guinea and its impact on early British
abolitionism
Trevor Burnard
2 An incident at the Sun Tavern: Changing the discourse on Indigenous
visitors to Georgian Britain Kate Fullagar
3 Humanity amidst calamity: Humanitarian discourse in New South Wales,
17881830
Jillian Beard
4 'Nor do they harbour vermin': Material culture approaches to exploring
humanitarian exchanges Amanda B. Moniz
5 The realpolitik of emancipation in the British Empire, 183338 Alan
Lester
Part II: Humanitarianism and Indigenous peoples, 1838c. 1950
6 Humanitarianism in a genocidal age: The tragic story of the Aboriginal
prison on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, 18381903 Ann Curthoys
7 From humanitarianism to humane governance: Aboriginal slavery and white
Australia Amanda Nettelbeck
8 Humanitarian priorities and West African agency in the British Empire
Bronwen Everill
9 The origins of exemption: The individual exception in the discourse of
humanitarianism Katherine Ellinghaus
Part III: A new international order, 191895
10 Gender, personalities and the politics of humanitarianism: Nursing leaders
of the League of Red Cross Societies between the wars Melanie Oppenheimer
11 Springs of love: Sentiment and affect in the development of
mid-twentieth-century volunteering Agnieszka Sobocinska
12 Humanitarian activism during the Vietnam War: The case of Rosemary Taylor,
Elaine Moir and Margaret Moses Joy Damousi
13 Humanitarianism in the age of human rights: Amnesty International in
Australia Jon Piccini
14 Palliation, poverty and child welfare: Human rights and humanitarianism in
the 1980s Roland Burke
Index -- .
Trevor Burnard: Wilberforce Professor of Slavery and Emancipation, Director of the Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull. Joy Damousi: Director of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Catholic University. Alan Lester: Professor at the University of Sussex. -- .
