COLONIALISM

'Colonialism' has had a profound effect on our lives. Every aspect of our day-to-day existence from our world views to our eating preferences has been touched by the colonial experience. On the world stage a range of contemporary preoccupations and ills - from globalization to humanitarian intervention to international terrorism - have colonialism somewhere in their genetic make-up. In this extraordinary new guide, MacQueen addresses the key theories of colonialism and examines them against contemporary realities. In contrasting the varied European ‘philosophies’ of colonialism: French and Portuguese ‘ultra-nationalism’ on the one hand and British Imperial ‘pragmatism’ on the other, MacQueen exposes their profoundly contradictory effects on the way different empires ended in the twentieth century. These endings in turn affected the entire nature of modern day international relations.