Commonwealth History in the Twenty-First Century, 1st ed. 2020
Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series

This edited collection draws together new historical writing on the Commonwealth. It features the work of younger scholars, as well as established academics, and highlights themes such as law and sovereignty, republicanism and the monarchy, French engagement with the Commonwealth, the anti-apartheid struggle, race and immigration, memory and commemoration, and banking. The volume focusses less on the Commonwealth as an institution than on the relevance and meaning of the Commonwealth to its member countries and peoples. By adopting oblique, de-centred, approaches to Commonwealth history, unusual or overlooked connections are brought to the fore while old problems are looked at from fresh vantage points ? be this turning points like the relationship between ?old? and `new? Commonwealth members from 1949, or the distinctive roles of major figures like Jawaharlal Nehru or Jan Smuts. The volume thereby aims to refresh interest in Commonwealth history as a field of comparative international history.

1 Introduction: The Commonwealth in the Twenty-First Century, Saul Dubow and Richard Drayton

2 The League of Nations and the ‘Third British Empire’, 1919-40, David Thackeray

3 Commonwealth History from Below?:  Caribbean National, Federal and Pan-African Renegotiations of the Empire Project, c. 1880-1950, Richard Drayton

4 Commonwealth Constitution-Maker: The Life of Yash Ghai, Coel Kirby

5 ‘‘The Unbridgeable Gulf”: Responsible Self-Government and Aboriginal Title in Southern Rhodesia and the Commonwealth, Edward Cavanagh

6 Commonwealth Communities: Immigration and Racial Thinking in Twentieth Century Britain, Saima Nasar

7 Between Insignificance and Importance: The Commonwealth Headship in Contemporary History, Harshan Kumarasingham

8 Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian Republicanism, and the Commonwealth, Sunil Purushotham

9 South African Indians, Monarchy and the New Commonwealth: Transnational conversations and perspectives, 1946-1948, Hilary Sapire

10 Cuckoo in the Commonwealth Nest: The Irish Impact and the Commonwealth Legacy for Ireland, Donal Lowry

11 The Commonwealth and Apartheid, Thula Simpson

12 Racial Legacies: South African Apartheid and the Old Commonwealth, Harriet Aldrich

13 A Bridge to Better Relations between London and Vichy’: Jan Smuts, South Africa, and Commonwealth Diplomacy in the Second World War, Luc-André Brunet

14 Globalising Suez: Commonwealth Diplomacy and the War of Algerian Independence (1955-1957), Mélanie Torrent

15 Whose Commonwealth? Negotiating Commonwealth Day in the 1950s and 1960s, Anna Bocking-Welch

16 Banking on a Commonwealth Future, Sarah Stockwell

Saul Dubow is Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Cambridge, UK, and an expert on South Africa.   

Richard Drayton is Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College London, UK, with a special interest in the Caribbean. 

Both teach and write about global and imperial history.  

Explores the enduring historical ties of the Commonwealth as an institution

Brings together leading scholars in imperial, post-colonial and commonwealth history to reflect on the Commonwealth’s significance

Examines the Commonwealth’s ongoing influence on law, constitutionalism and federation, as well as its importance in particular countries and regions