UC Berkeley GAIA Books Title The Afterlife of Empire Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2tp0d3gp ISBN 9781938169045 Author Bailkin, Jordanna Publication Date 2012-11-15 Copyright Information This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, availalbe at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Afterlife of Empire Jordanna Bailkin Published in association with the University of California Press “Quietly dazzling. . . . In this gripping account of welfare’s postcolonial history, Jordanna Bailkin throws the archives wide open and invites us to walk through them with new eyes—and with renewed appreciation for the intimate connections between empire and metropole in the mak- ing of contemporary Britain. The Afterlife of Empire chal- lenges us to reimagine how we think and teach the twen- tieth century in Britain and beyond.” ANTOINETTE BURTON, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “A brilliant contribution to the history of twentieth-century Britain. It does what no other book has done: narrating the end of empire and the rise of the postwar welfare state to- gether, while placing the stories of ordinary people—children, adolescents, parents, hus- bands, and wives—at the heart of this account. With this book, Bailkin transforms our un- derstanding of how some of the most critical issues of twentieth-century British history were not just perceived, but lived.” STEPHEN J. BROOKE, York University The Afterlife of Empire investigates how decolonization transformed British society in the 1950s and 1960s. Although usually charted through diplomatic details, the empire’s col- lapse was also a personal process that altered everyday life, restructuring routines and social interactions. Using a vast array of recently declassified sources, Jordanna Bailkin re- casts the genealogy and geography of welfare by charting its unseen dependence on the end of empire, and illuminates the relationship between the postwar and the postimperial. JORDANNA BAILKIN is Giovanni and Amne Costigan Professor of History and Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Washington. Berkeley Series in British Studies, 4 The Afterlife of Empire The Berkeley SerieS in BriTiSh STudieS Mark Bevir and James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley, editors 1. The Peculiarities of Liberal Modernity in Imperial Britain, edited by Simon Gunn and James Vernon 2. Dilemmas of Decline: British Intellectuals and World Politics, 1945–1975, by Ian Hall 3. The Savage Visit: New World People and Popular Imperial Culture in Britain, 1710–1795, by Kate Fullagar 4. The Afterlife of Empire, by Jordanna Bailkin 5. Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle East, by Michelle Tusan The Afterlife of Empire Jordanna Bailkin Global, Area, and International Archive University of California Press Berkeley loS angeleS london The Global, Area, and International Archive (GAIA) is an initiative of the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the University of California Press, the California Digital Library, and international research programs across the University of California system. University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Manufactured in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of anSi/niSo z39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Birth of the Migrant: Pathology and Postwar Mobility 23 2. Young Britons: International Aid and “Development” in the Age of the Adolescent 55 3. Problem Learners: Overseas Students and the Dilemmas of Cold War Education 95 4. Much Married Men: Polygamy, Culture, and the State 132 5. The Postcolonial Family? Problem Parents and Children 164 6. Leaving Home: The Politics of Deportation 202 Conclusion 235 Notes 243 Bibliography 309 Index 355 Illustrations 1. Chris Tipple Teaching in Akropong, Ghana 56 2. Alec and Mora Dickson 57 3. Rehearsing Chekhov in Ghana 70 4. Building a Community Center in Jamaica 71 5. “Kwame, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Appiah” 81 6. Sir Gerald Templer 85 7. “Congrats” 102 8. “In Quest of ‘Golden Fleece’ ” 103 9. “They Return with ‘Golden Fleece’ ” 103 10. “A Nigerian Ports Authority Instructor Himself Receives Instruction” 104 11. Mrs Lake Bakaar and Miss Grimilda Johnson Trying On Sierra Leone Masks in London 104 12. “Calling Nigeria from Belfast” 105 13. “Preparatory Course for Students” 109 14. From Tom Picton, “Oh Mary, This London” 111 15. From Tom Picton, “Oh Mary, This London” 112 16. Oswald K. Laryea 128 17. Melvine Stuart Spinning Wool at Cambridge University 166 18. Melvine Stuart Giving Tea at Cambridge University 167 19. “Career Women of West Africa” 168 20. Rosamund Ahiama 168 vii