Professor Bill Schwarz's book dramatically brings to life the frontier worlds of the British empire, not least the settler-colonial experiences of global Englishmen, and the ways in which these worlds and experiences came to redefine the meaning and purpose of empire itself. In The White Man's World, Schwarz brilliantly draws our awareness to the connections between British imperial thought and attendant imperial theories of what he terms 'racial whiteness'.
Dr Ian Sanjay Patel, LSE's Research for the World magazine
Readers who have followed the struggle over the proper place of imperialism in British history these last three decades will know that Schwarz throws open many doors which have long been ajar but which, even now, await those willing to walk boldly yet thoughtfully through them ... The luxuriously long form of Schwarzs narrative is utterly inseparable from the force of his argument. Evidently, The White Mans World is the first of a trilogy; future volumes should be eagerly anticipated.
Aantoinette Burton, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, The American Historical Review
wonderful the finest investigation of these themes for many years.
Stephen Howe, The Independent
Schwarz exhibits the breadth of his political and historiographical credentials.
The Irish Times
impressive in its reach and crammed with fascinating material.
Peter Parker, Times Literary Supplement
Schwarz should be congratulated on what he has achieved here Schwarz's knowledge of the secondary literature is outstanding; his writing is effortlessly readable and wonderfully mischievous at times.
Joanna Lewis, Times Higher Education
The White Man's World is an important book; a major contribution to interrogating the view that in general Empire had little impact on the British public ... by showing how deeply formative its often imagined memory, symbols and myths are in our world today.
Juliet Gardiner, History Today
It is an elegant thesis, segueing with delightful ease between history and memory, colony and capital and drawing on a diverse collection of sources ... One can but look forward with keen anticipation to his next instalment.
. Anna Sanderson, History Today
Schwarz has a thorough mastery of the complex historiography of the British Empire, and a mind supple enough to formulate new and interesting questions.
Michael Burleigh, The Literary Review
original and intellectually imaginative.
Martin Francis, English Historical Review
A highly accomplished and illuminating study of an imperial tradition in which hope and idealism co-exist (sometimes in a single individual) with feelings of loss and betrayal.
Saul Dubow, Twentieth Century British History
This is an extremely significant book, a deeply impressive work.
Ashley Jackson, BBC History Magazine
It is hard to do justice to this magisterial piece of work ... The luxuriously long form of Schwarz's narrative is utterly inseparable from the force of his argument.
Antoinette Burton, American Historical Review
Though clearly inspired by recent works of memory studies, Schwarz avoids much of the jargon that prevails in them. Instead, he presents an in-depth reading of the writings of some of the prominent public figures in the history of the British Empire from the 19th to the late 20th centuries.
Q. E. Wang, CHOICE
I am hoping that the next two volumes prove to be equally as conceptually sophisticated, and empirically diverting, as White Man's World.
Ruth Craggs, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs
The particular charm of the book lies in its nuanced style and method ... Scholars will find in its wealth of knowledge tantalising new avenues for future research, while its effortless crossing between academic boundaries offers a reminder of just how good interdisciplinary history can be.
Sam Hutchinson, Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies
represents an extraordinary achievement in writing about the changing process of colonisation and the nostalgic mythmaking of empire's passing in the face of decolonization movements ... a major study representing the best that critical imperial history has to offer.
Fiona Paisley, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History