
The Making of an Imperial Polity
Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis
Lauren Working(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 16. January 2020
Book
Hardback
266 pages
978-1-108-49406-9 (ISBN)
Description
Bringing to life the interaction between America, its peoples, and metropolitan gentlemen in early seventeenth-century England, this book argues that colonization did not just operate on the peripheries of the political realm, and confronts the entangled histories of colonialism and domestic status and governance. The Jacobean era is reframed as a definitive moment in which the civil self-presentation of the elite increasingly became implicated in the imperial. The tastes and social lives of statesmen contributed to this shift in the English political gaze. At the same time, bringing English political civility in dialogue with Native American beliefs and practices speaks to inherent tensions in the state's civilizing project and the pursuit of refinement through empire. This significant reassessment of Jacobean political culture reveals how colonizing America transformed English civility and demonstrates how metropolitan politics and social relations were uniquely shaped by territorial expansion beyond the British Isles. This title is also available as Open Access.
Reviews / Votes
'... this book contributes to the body of scholarship on early modern civility.' Janine Boldt, H-Nationalism 'This is an important book, well researched and clearly written that will spark many scholarly conversations.' Abigail L. Swingen, Early American LiteratureMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises; 8 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-108-49406-9 (9781108494069)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
07/2025
Cambridge University Press
€37.50
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
01/2020
Cambridge University Press
€73.99
Available for download

E-Book
01/2020
Cambridge University Press
€82.99
Available for download
Person
Lauren Working is Research Associate on the ERC-funded TIDE project (Travel, Transculturality, and Identity in England, 1550-1700) at the University of Oxford. She has held fellowships at the Jamestown archaeological site and the Royal Anthropological Institute, where she continues to develop methodologies and projects that explore indigeneity, colonial legacies, and heritage in English museums.
Content
Introduction; 1. Cultivation and the American project; 2. Colony as microcosm: Virginia and the metropolis; 3. Cannibalism and the politics of bloodshed; 4. Tobacco, consumption, and imperial intent; 5. Wit, sociability, and empire; Conclusion.