Jordanna Bailkin. The Afterlife of Empire.

Abstract

Jordanna Bailkin has written an ambitious book, one that finds space in the crowded field of research on the British Empire and decolonization's effects on the UK. But Bailkin is interested chiefly in neither diplomatic history nor the well-covered relationship between decolonization and migration to the metropole. Rather, she seeks to understand how decolonization was “lived” by longstanding British citizens (to use an anachronistic term), newly arrived British subjects, and that perennially awkward category of insiders-yet-outsiders, white-yet-racialized, and privileged-yet-marginalized: the Irish. This expanded perspective could in principle include innumerable aspects of postwar British life, and a glance at Bailkin's table of contents reveals a long and varied list of topics. The book explores postwar emigration schemes for Britons (particularly to Australia), Voluntary Service Overseas (the VSO), international (Commonwealth) students in the UK, polygamy, and deportation policy as it concerned Irish nationals. Bailkin ties these diverse strands together and links all of them with empire/decolonization through two foci: welfare and expert knowledge produced by large numbers of well-funded postwar social scientists. Methodologically, the author combines social history (including biographical studies of key political actors, social scientists, and average citizens) with public policy history (a detailed focus on the British laws governing these areas).