Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges

Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges presents a collection of original readings that address gendered dimensions of empire from a wide range of geographical and temporal settings.

• Draws on original research on gender and empire in relation to labour, commodities, fashion, politics, mobility, and visuality


• Includes coverage of gender issues from countries in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia between the eighteenth to twentieth centuries


• Highlights a range of transnational and transregional connections across the globe


• Features innovative gender analyses of the circulation of people, ideas, and cultural practices

In spite of its historic significance, gender considerations were often dismissed in traditional imperial histories. Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges presents a collection of readings which address myriad gendered dimensions of empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, across a wide range of geographic locales. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen international scholars—and based on their original research—articles revolve around such themes as labour, commodities, fashion, mobility, and activism while exploring the dynamics of empire in destinations ranging from Africa and the Americas to Europe and Asia. Special consideration is given to gender issues arising during periods when upheaval challenged colonial regimes, which often resulted in decolonization and independence. Chapters also reveal how former colonies transitioned into ‘nations,’ along with transnational dynamics that took place among modern states. A common thread woven through each article is the matter of precisely who it was that deserved to be treated and recognized as fully human in an era of imperial exchanges and ongoing capitalist globalization. Innovative and thought-provoking, Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges sheds important new light on our understanding of the complex gendered dimensions of the exchanges of people, ideas, and cultural practices during the post-colonial era.

In spite of its historic significance, gender considerations were often dismissed in traditional imperial histories. Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges presents a collection of readings which address myriad gendered dimensions of empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, across a wide range of geographic locales. Featuring contributions from more than a dozen international scholars―and based on their original research―articles revolve around such themes as labour, commodities, fashion, mobility, and activism while exploring the dynamics of empire in destinations ranging from Africa and the Americas to Europe and Asia. Special consideration is given to gender issues arising during periods when upheaval challenged colonial regimes, which often resulted in decolonization and independence. Chapters also reveal how former colonies transitioned into ‘nations,’ along with transnational dynamics that took place among modern states. A common thread woven through each article is the matter of precisely who it was that deserved to be treated and recognized as fully human in an era of imperial exchanges and ongoing capitalist globalization. Innovative and thought-provoking, Gender, Imperialism and Global Exchanges sheds important new light on our understanding of the complex gendered dimensions of the exchanges of people, ideas, and cultural practices during the post-colonial era.

Stephan Miescher is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Making Men in Ghana (2005) and the co-editor of Modernization as Spectacle in Africa (2014), Africa After Gender? (2007) and Men and Masculinities in Modern Africa (2003). He is also a former co-editor of Ghana Studies and co-director of the University of California Multicampus Research Group in African Studies.