The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

I’ve been revisiting the East African Campaign, which is where it all began for me in terms of studying Africa. A new perspective or analysis of Von Lettow-Vorbeck is just the ticket!

Shipping Lords and Coolie Stokers: Class, Race, and Maritime Capitalism in the Early Twentieth Century Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2025)

New book review published at @jich.bsky.social

@joeredmayne.bsky.social reviews Ravi Ahuja's 'Shipping Lords and Coolie Stokers: Class, Race, and Maritime Capitalism in the Early Twentieth Century'

@versobooks.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Career as a Colonial Officer: Learning the ‘Colonial Way of War’? Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck is best known as commander of the Schutztruppe in German East Africa during the First World War. His previous career as a colonial officer with deployments in the Boxer Rebe...

Hot off the press and #OpenAccess, check out 'Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Career as a Colonial Officer: Learning the ‘Colonial Way of War’?' by Sibylle Scheipers: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

📖We're thrilled to share a new article by Prof. Rotem Giladi
@rgiladi.bsky.social: “Flogging Jack Nafte: Corporal Punishment, Imperial Assimilation, and Jewish Whiteness in Pre-Apartheid South Africa” in @jich.bsky.social.

🔗For the full #openaccess article:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My piece for @historyworkshop.org.uk reflects on the politics of forgetting, detailing how Hong Kong’s displaced colonial archives have exiled memory to the metropole www.historyworkshop.org.uk/empire-decol...

Based on my paper in @jich.bsky.social (open access) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine With a focus on how anticolonial social movements can pose solutions to multiple contemporary problems, this essay takes up the Big Ride for Palestine. The principal argument – that the Big Ride co...

Our latest current debate is out and #OpenAccess, see 'Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine' by John Munro: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

The Doctrine of Lapse in Nagpur: Decision-Making at the Periphery This article reinterprets the Doctrine of Lapse not as a uniform legal code or mere pretext for aggrandisement but as a situational instrument fashioned and applied at the colonial periphery. Centr...

Check out our latest article 'The Doctrine of Lapse in Nagpur: Decision-Making at the Periphery' by J. H. Song: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine With a focus on how anticolonial social movements can pose solutions to multiple contemporary problems, this essay takes up the Big Ride for Palestine. The principal argument – that the Big Ride co...

Our latest 'Current Debates' essay in @jich.bsky.social is now out! In 'Mobility Justice and the Big Ride for Palestine' @johnmunro.bsky.social highlights the connections between decolonial activism with environmentalist mobility justice. #OpenAccess

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In my post for Imperial & Global Forum (@exeter.ac.uk), I compare how different colonial governments handled records towards the end of the British Empire imperialglobalexeter.com/2025/10/16/d...

Based on my paper in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 (OA) doi.org/10.1080/0308...

“officials often destroyed or doctored countless files in an effort to uphold the Empire’s glorious image…. One former British colony has, however, remained absent from the literature: Hong Kong”

- @mrmhurst.bsky.social

@jich.bsky.social

imperialglobalexeter.com/2025/10/16/d...

Flogging Jack Nafte: Corporal Punishment, Imperial Assimilation, and Jewish Whiteness in Pre-Apartheid South Africa This article focusses on the whip and the body to examine an imperial variety of Jewish assimilation. Empire, the article argues, not only provided Jews more diverse opportunities for social mobili...

Just released & #OpenAccess, check out 'Flogging Jack Nafte: Corporal Punishment, Imperial Assimilation, and Jewish Whiteness in Pre-Apartheid South Africa' by Rotem Giladi: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Amendments to Non-European Naturalisation Policy, 1956–1957: Differentiating Between Intention and Effect This article challenges benign depictions of the gradual and intentional liberalisation of the ‘White Australia policy’ during the Menzies government through an analysis of the quick series of amen...

Hot off the press & #OpenAccess, check out 'Amendments to Non-European Naturalisation Policy, 1956–1957: Differentiating Between Intention and Effect' by Nathan Gardner Molina: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Expanding Morgan Godwyn’s Corpus: Rethinking the Evolution of Early Modern Anti-Slavery Sentiment This paper seeks to extend Morgan Godwyn’s bibliography by bringing to light two of his early-career letters that have not received as much attention as they deserve. While these texts have been in...

Just published! Check out 'Expanding Morgan Godwyn’s Corpus: Rethinking the Evolution of Early Modern Anti-Slavery Sentiment' by Brian Smith: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Sailing for Crown and Curiosity: Prince Alfred’s Mediterranean Voyage The tours of the British royal family have always been important both for the British Empire and for the countries visited. Prince Alfred’s Mediterranean voyage in 1859 is among the royal tours tha...

Check out the recent article 'Sailing for Crown and Curiosity: Prince Alfred’s Mediterranean Voyage' by Diren Çakilci: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

'Once they are made public, these Hong Kong records will be invaluable to historians of Hong Kong, China and the British Empire. This cannot come soon enough.'

The Meeting Place - BWB Bridget Williams Books Vincent O’Malley’s account of the first meeting between Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri and Abel Tasman’s crew sets the scene for how two peoples navigated fraught beginnings to find a ‘meeting place’ in pre-Treat...

Looking for a reviewer for this new book for the @jich.bsky.social. DM me if interested!

www.bwb.co.nz/books/the-me...

Also looking for a reviewer for this new book for the @jich.bsky.social. DM me if interested!

kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640737/

This book is slightly older, but still keen for a reviewer for this book for @jich.bsky.social. DM me if interested!

www.mqup.ca/civilization...

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. Just published! Check out 'Between Paternal Power and Prerogative: The Reformatory Origins of Protection in the British Empire (1788–1888)' by Matilde Cazzola:

Hong Kong Colonial Government Migrated Archives at Hanslope Park Following the revelation in 2011 that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office was sitting on the migrated archives of dozens of colonial governments, almost 20,000 files were transferred from s...

British colonial officials destroyed countless files before decolonisation. But one colony has been neglected by the literature: Hong Kong. My latest paper in @jich.bsky.social examines the past, present and future of Hong Kong colonial government migrated archives: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

One year since I became the book reviews editor for @jich.bsky.social. It has been fun and busy!

Hong Kong Colonial Government Migrated Archives at Hanslope Park Following the revelation in 2011 that the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office was sitting on the migrated archives of dozens of colonial governments, almost 20,000 files were transferred from s...

Just released and #OpenAccess, have a read of the article 'Hong Kong Colonial Government Migrated Archives at Hanslope Park' by Matthew Hurst: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Between Paternal Power and Prerogative: The Reformatory Origins of Protection in the British Empire (1788–1888) In the nineteenth century, protective departments for the ‘treatment’ of groups of colonised subjects – portrayed as vulnerable and disorderly yet reformable – were installed across the British Emp...

Just published! Check out 'Between Paternal Power and Prerogative: The Reformatory Origins of Protection in the British Empire (1788–1888)' by Matilde Cazzola: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Our series of essays and commentary relating to the ongoing genocide in Palestine is free to read, share and download until tomorrow, 30 September 2025. @jich.bsky.social #FreeAccess

Displacement and Resilience: Scottish Highland Communities in Nova Scotia, 1810–1850 This article is a historical intervention in understanding the roots of socio-economic exclusion by interrogating the links between people’s displacement from three of Scotland’s Western Isles – Ba...

New publication for reading lists! "Displacement and Resilience: Scottish Highland Communities in Nova Scotia" with @jich.bsky.social. if you don't have institutional access - please let me know and I'll share another link. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Mobilising Xenophobia and Making Colonialism at the British Cape of Good Hope: Emigrants, Africans, and Repealers in the Politics of the 1849 Anti-Convict Movement This paper examines the politics of the 1849 anti-convict movement that emerged in the British Cape Colony in southern Africa in response to the designation of the colony as a penal settlement and ...

Hot off the press! See our latest article 'Mobilising Xenophobia and Making Colonialism at the British Cape of Good Hope: Emigrants, Africans, and Repealers in the Politics of the 1849 Anti-Convict Movement' by Paddy O’Halloran: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

The Special Operations Executive in Malaya: World War II and the Path to Independence Published in The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Ahead of Print, 2025)

See the latest book review written by Augustine Meaher on 'The Special Operations Executive in Malaya: World War II and the Path to Independence' by Rebecca Kenneison, Oxford, Bloomsbury Academic, 2025: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Publishes works on the history of the British Empire, Commonwealth and comparative European colonial experiences, including imperial policies and decolonization

Just a reminder that I am the book reviews editor for @jich.bsky.social and am always looking for people to pitch reviews of recent books on British imperialism, colonialism and the Commonwealth (broadly defined). Send me a DM or email!

www.tandfonline.com/journals/fic...

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History Volume 53, Issue 5 of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

We are excited to announce that Volume 53 Issue 5 (2025) is now out! Check it out here: www.tandfonline.com/toc/fich20/5...

Our latest opinion piece in our ongoing debate over the repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures is now out. In "Recorded facts and different stories" @dr-m-trabucco.bsky.social argues in favour of retention.