Race and Imperial Defence in the British World, 1870–1914

The first comprehensive account of the cultural and racial origins of the imperial security partnership between Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Drawing on research from every corner of the globe, John C. Mitcham merges studies of diplomacy, defense strategy, and politics with a wider analysis of society and popular culture, and in doing so, poses important questions about race, British identity, and the idea of empire. The book examines diverse subjects such as the South African War, the Anglo-German naval arms race, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and the birth of the Boy Scout Movement, and positions them within the larger phenomenon of British race patriotism that permeated the fin de siècle. Most importantly, Mitcham demonstrates how this shared concept of 'Britishness' gradually led to closer relations between the self-governing states of the empire, and ultimately resulted in a remarkably unified effort during the First World War.

Introduction; 1. Imperial Britons: race, identity, and Greater Britain; 2. Defending Greater Britain: race and the evolution of Victorian imperial defense; 3. Imperial unity, masculinity, and the South African war; 4. The empire on parade: public representations of Greater Britain; 5. 'Sea league of all the Britons': race, navalism, and empire; 6. A young Briton's duty: youth, militarism, and empire; 7. 'A Britannic alliance': the dominions and imperial defense policy, 1900–14; Conclusion: the 'call of the blood': the empire and the outbreak of the Great War; Bibliography; Index.

John C. Mitcham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He holds a Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Alabama. He has received fellowships from the University of Alabama and the Australian Army Historical Unit, and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. He is an active member of the British Scholar Society, the Society for Military History, and the North American Conference of British Studies.