ONLY $9.90 DELIVERY INFO

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Cosmopolitan Elites and the Making of Globality

M. N. Roy and Fellow Anti-Colonial, Communist and Humanist Intellectuals, c. 1915 – 1960

Leonie Wolters (Freie University Berlin, Germany) David Brydan (King's College London UK) Jessica Reinisch (Birkbeck University of London UK)

$59.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Bloomsbury Academic
08 August 2025
As ideologies such as communism, fascism and various nationalisms vied for global domination during the first half of the 20th century, this book shows how a specific group of individuals - a cosmopolitan elite - became representatives of those ideologies the world over.

Centering on the Indian intellectual M.

N Roy, Cosmopolitan Elites and the Making of Globality situates his life within various social circles that covered several ideological realms and continents. An example of an individual who represented ideologies such as anticolonial nationalism, communism and humanism, Roy is identified as unusual but by no means singular in this capacity, and shows how other elites were similarly able to represent ideologies that sought to make the world anew.

This book explores how Roy and his peers and competitors became a political elite as they cultivated a cosmopolitan reputation that meant they were taken seriously even when speaking of regions outside of their own. By considering the social and performative practices that turned them into credible, global, cosmopolitans, Wolters uncovers the exclusive basis on which the universal claims of world-changing ideologies were made.
By:  
Edited by:   ,
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 232mm,  Width: 154mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   420g
ISBN:   9781350373181
ISBN 10:   1350373184
Series:   Histories of Internationalism
Pages:   272
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Further / Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Introduction: Giving a Face to the World; M. N. Roy in the Role of a Lifetime Chapter 1: Clubs for Outsiders; Making a Vagrant Elite Chapter 2: Worldly Bodies; Practices of Mobility across Ideological Divides Chapter 3: Bengali Actors on World Stages Chapter 4: Human Resources: Exiles, Professional Revolutionaries and Development Experts Chapter 5: A Flat Earth: Perspectives from Nowhere Conclusion: The World Incorporated Bibliography

Leonie Wolters is a postdoc researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany. Having studied in Utrecht, Edinburgh and Dar es Salaam she has also worked in journalism and created several documentaries for Dutch radio.

Reviews for Cosmopolitan Elites and the Making of Globality: M. N. Roy and Fellow Anti-Colonial, Communist and Humanist Intellectuals, c. 1915 – 1960

Fascinating new starting points and avenues for investigating the emergence of a cosmopolitan club of anticolonial intellectuals. * H-Soz-Kult * This global history of M.N. Roy and many of his allies (as well as critics) offers an exciting angle into the internationalism of Indian anti-colonial revolutionaries by offering an analysis of “smooth, distinguished cosmopolitanism,” exemplified by culinary and sartorial choices, clandestine spaces, and sensual pleasures of exiles and itinerants. * Neilesh Bose, Associate Professor of History and Canada Research Chair, University of Victoria, Canada * This is a thoroughly fascinating book. It challenges fundamental assumptions of what makes a cosmopolitan person while being a new model of intellectual history. By looking at M. N. Roy’s border crossing, global thinking, and subversive practices, Leonie Wolters offers original insights into intellectual globalization – and how one individual served an ideology that claimed universal meaning. * Jeremy Adelman, Director Global History Lab, University of Cambridge, UK *


See Also