Semi-Detached Empire: Suburbia and Imperial Discourse in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Abstract

Claims much of the scholarly investigation of imperialism’s impact on rural and urban Britain has ignored the suburban development that arose during this period. Reads imperialism as central to the construction of the suburb. While suburbs appeared to some as a bastion of national strength and racial regeneration, others viewed it as threatening to Anglo-Saxon culture or as emblematic of the British empire’s inherent degeneracy and impending decay. Examines the writings of two prominent commentators, Sidney Low and C.F.G. Masterman, to demonstate these tensions.