Rooted in a period of vigorous exploration and colonialism,
The Island Race: Englishness, empire and gender in the eighteenth century
is an innovative study of the issues of nation, gender and identity. Wilson bases her analysis on a wide range of case studies drawn both from Britain and across the Atlantic and Pacific worlds.
Creating a colourful and original colonial landscape, she considers topics such as:
sodomy
theatre
masculinity
the symbolism of Britannia
the role of women in war
Wilson shows the far-reaching implications that colonial power and expansion had upon the English people's sense of self, and argues that the vaunted singularity of English culture was in fact constituted by the bodies, practices and exchanges of peoples across the globe. Theoretically rigorous and highly readable,
The Island Race
will become a seminal text for understanding the pressing issues that it confronts.