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Autobiography as a Micrometer for Empire: How a Nineteenth‐Century E nglish Tailor was – and was not – an Absent‐Minded Imperialist
Author(s) -
Ferguson Christopher
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.12
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1468-229X
pISSN - 0018-2648
DOI - 10.1111/1468-229x.12094
Subject(s) - empire , biography , context (archaeology) , metropolitan area , history , point (geometry) , sociology , aesthetics , literature , ancient history , art , art history , archaeology , geometry , mathematics
The relationship between the B ritish empire and the metropolitan populace remains a recurring point of debate for historians. Autobiographies, such as that of the nineteenth‐century tailor J ames C arter (1792–1853), offer a means of moving beyond the question of working‐class knowledge of the empire, to understand the ways in which workers perceived the role and significance of the empire within the context of their own lives. Analysis of C arter's autobiography yields a vision of a worker who, while far from ignorant of the empire's existence, perceived it as a largely distant entity, except in those moments when its influence manifested directly in his own personal and economic affairs.