Colonialism's culture

by Thomas, Nicholas

Despite the worldwide trend toward decolonization over the past century and the frequent use of the term "postcolonial" to describe the present, the ramifications of colonialism are so enduring that colonialism itself merits ongoing reinterpretation. In this book, Nicholas Thomas greatly expands our understanding of colonialism beyond its characterization as a homogenous ideology supporting military conquest and economic exploitation. He reveals it to be a complex cultural process - one in which dominated populations are each represented in specific ways that play upon and legitimize racial and cultural differences. Focusing on colonizing efforts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the author explores how Europeans perceived certain colonized populations and how recent scholars have approached the question of colonial representation. Arguing against general analyses of colonialism, he proposes that a historicized, ethnographic investigation of colonialism would best lead t