Island Race

Rooted in a period of vigorous exploration and colonialism, "The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century" is a study of the issues of nation, gender and identity. In the rapidly expanding 18th-century world, English perceptions of origin and heritage became altered - the question of national identity emerging as a particularly troubled and ambiguous issue. Wilson bases her analysis on a wide range of case studies drawn both from Britain and across the Atlantic and Pacific worlds. Creating a colourful and original colonial landscape, she considers topics such as sodomy, theatre, masculinity, the symbolism of Britannia and the role of women in war. Wilson shows the far-reaching implications that colonial power and expansion had upon the English people's sense of self, and argues that the vaunted singularity of English culture was in fact constituted by the bodies, practices and exchanges of peoples across the globe. This work should become a seminal text for understanding the pressing issues that it confronts.

'There is no doubt that this is a profound and important book.' - English Historical Review'Kathleen Wilson's dazzling new book ... provides an invigorating, if occasionally disconcerting, escape from the tidy and complacent.' - William and Mary Quarterly'Elegantly written and handsomely produced ... this is an important book that specialists and nonspecialists alike will find rewarding.' - American Historical Review'Kathleen Wilson's detailed and lively study is ... theoretically rigorous and exemplary in its interdisciplinary approach, encompassing appropriate analysis of drama and poetry as well as a range of extremely well-chosen and intriguing prints and paintings ... This is a book which will appeal to scholars in a wide range of disciplines ... her work fills the reader with renewed enthusiasm for her subject.' - European Journal of English Studies, 'Elegantly written and handsomely produced ... this is an important book that specialists and nonspecialists alike will find rewarding.' - American Historical Review'Kathleen Wilson's detailed and lively study is ... theoretically rigorous and exemplary in its interdisciplinary approach, encompassing appropriate analysis of drama and poetry as well as a range of extremely well-chosen and intriguing prints and paintings ... This is a book which will appeal to scholars in a wide range of disciplines ... her work fills the reader with renewed enthusiasm for her subject.' - European Journal of English Studies

Kathleen Wilson is Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has written widely on empire and the politics of culture in eighteenth-century Britain, including The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England 1715–1785, winner of the 1995 Whitfield Prize for British History, Royal Historical Society, and the 1996 John Ben Snow Prize of the North American Conference on British Studies.