Endorsements

The mid-nineteenth century saw the creation of mass-produced juvenile literature whose form and ethos were to remain dominant until the 1950s, shaping the perceptions, attitudes and values of successive generations. The need to combat the perceived moral threat of the 'penny dreadfuls', the increasing availability of formal education after 1870 and the development of new printing technology all combined to promote, in books and magazines, a new genre of 'healthy' adventure fiction, geared to the inculcation of the national ideology - imperialism, a cluster of ideas which included, in various proportions, patriotism, militarism, racialism, Christianity, hero-worship and manliness. This cluster of ideas centred on the global concept of Britain's role in the maintenance of order and the spread of civilisation. In this book acknowledged experts in the field examine the articulation and diffusion of imperialism through juvenile literature, demonstrating that it acted not just as a mirror it age but as an active agency constructing and perpetuating a view of the world in which imperialism was an integral part of the cultural and psychological formation of successive generations of young people. It charts the changes and developments, continuities and contradictions through studies of individual authors, themes and genres and the strategies of production. To complement the concentration on boys' literature there is an essay on imperialist literature for girls and, for comparison, a study of the diffusion of imperial ideas in the dominions. Authoritative and accessible, it will appeal to academics and students of history, sociology, literature and popular culture as well as to the interested general reader.