Country houses and the British empire, 17001930 assesses the economic and cultural links between country houses and the Empire between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Using sources from over fifty British and Irish archives, it enables readers to better understand the impact of the empire upon the British metropolis by showing both the geographical variations and its different cultural manifestations. Barczewski offers a rare scholarly analysis of the history of country houses that goes beyond an architectural or biographical study, and recognises their importance as the physical embodiments of imperial wealth and reflectors of imperial cultural influences. In so doing, she restores them to their true place of centrality in British culture over the last three centuries, and provides fresh insights into the role of the Empire in the British metropolis.

Stephanie Barczewski is Professor of Modern British History at Clemson University

Introduction: British country houses and empire, 170019301. Colonial merchants2. Indian nabobs3. West Indian planters4. Military and naval officers and other categories of imperial estate purchasers5. The impact of imperial wealth on British landed estates6. The cultural display of empire in country houses7. The discourse of commodities8. The discourse of cosmopolitanism9. The discourse of conquest10. The discourse of collectingConclusionAppendicesSelect bibliographyIndex