Empires of the Mind
The event will begin with a free lunch at 12:30, with the discussion 1pm-2pm.

About the book:
‘The empires of the future would be the empires of the mind’ declared Churchill in 1943, envisaging universal empires living in peaceful harmony. Robert Gildea exposes instead the brutal realities of decolonisation and neo-colonialism which have shaped the postwar world. Even after the rush of French and British decolonisation in the 1960s, the strings of economic and military power too often remained in the hands of the former colonial powers. The more empire appears to have declined and fallen, the more a fantasy of empire has been conjured up as a model for projecting power onto the world stage and legitimised colonialist intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. This aggression, along with the imposition of colonial hierarchies in metropolitan society, has excluded, alienated and even radicalised immigrant populations. Meanwhile, nostalgia for empire has bedevilled relations with Europe and played a large part in explaining Brexit.

Panel includes:
Professor Rana Mitter
Professor Karma Nabulsi
Dr Faridah Zaman
Date: 22 January 2020, 13:00 (Wednesday, 1st week, Hilary 2020)
Venue: Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Seminar Room
Speaker: Professor Robert Gildea (Oxford)
Organising department: The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH)
Part of: TORCH Book at Lunchtime
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-at-lunchtime-empires-of-the-mind-tickets-85961173183
Booking email: torch@humanities.ox.ac.uk
Cost: Free
Audience: Public
Editor: Laura Spence