Defines our understanding of colonialism and empire.

Written at the height of the Algerian war for independence from French colonial rule, this work analyses the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle for freedom. Showing how decolonization must be combined with building a national culture, it presents analysis of relations between the West and the Third World.

Provides further reading for students and those keen to learn more about this subject.

Examines the creation and function of the imagined communities of nationality and the way these communities were in part created by the growth of the nation-state, the interaction between capitalism and printing and the birth of vernacular languages in early modern Europe.

From Jane Austen to Salman Rushdie, from Yeats to media coverage of the Gulf War, this title provides an account of the roots of imperialism in European culture.