Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
Spring 2017
Publication Title
Victorian Studies
Volume
59
Issue
3
Pages
566-568
Abstract
With Britannia’s Embrace: Modern Humanitarianism and the Imperial Origins of Refugee Relief, Caroline Shaw has written a timely and important book. From the seventeenth century onward, the heartfelt embrace of refugees was a “nation-defining act” that proved central to the development of political liberalism and British identity (43). Employing a wide range of sources, from literary works to parliamentary papers, Shaw charts Britons’ changing attitudes toward refugees across three centuries. In her early chapters, she uncovers an early modern culture in which refugees were welcomed to Britain as “model liberal individuals” (78). Typical refugees, usually men, were depicted as heroic, self-acting freedom fighters. In her later chapters, however, Shaw accounts for the gradual “hardening of the humanitarian heart” in the late nineteenth century as Britons redefined refugees as economic liabilities (helpless women and children) or as potential security threats (205).
Recommended Citation
Forth, Aidan A.. Britannia’s Embrace: Modern Humanitarianism and the Imperial Origins of Refugee Relief, by Caroline Shaw; pp. xi + 311. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, £47.99, $74.00.. Victorian Studies, 59, 3: 566-568, 2017. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, History: Faculty Publications and Other Works,
Creative Commons License
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Copyright Statement
© Indiana University Press 2017
Comments
Author Posting. © Indiana University Press 2017. This article is posted here by permission of the North American Victorian Studies Association for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Victorian Studies, 2017, http://muse.jhu.edu/article/670660