Legacies of British Rule

Name: Legacies of British Rule
Price: 270 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780691274492

Colonialism, Statehood, and Nationalist Civil War

Matthew Lange

$270

Hardback

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English

Princeton University Press
30 September 2025

Peace studies & conflict resolution; Colonialism & imperialism; Sociology; Nationalism

Series: Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology

The relationship between colonial pluralism and nationalist civil war in former British colonies.

Why do some communities fight civil wars over national self-rule while others do not? In Legacies of British Rule, Matthew Lange offers insight into this question through a rigorous multimethod and comparative analysis that pinpoints the combined impact of precolonial statehood and British colonialism. During transitions from empire to nation-state, postcolonial officials in places with large and long-standing precolonial states commonly try to build a unified nation around the dominant community in ways that discriminate against and exclude smaller communities. While such national chauvinism can fuel reactions leading to nationalist civil war, a history of British colonialism intensifies these reactions by increasing sensitivity to national chauvinism and empowering communities to act. Consequently, nationalist civil wars are three times more common in former British colonies than in other former overseas colonies.

And yet, Lange finds that British colonialism exerts a very different effect on places with a limited history of precolonial statehood; in an environment with little national chauvinism, British colonialism deters nationalist civil war by promoting more inclusive postcolonial states that strengthen plurinationalism and limit fear and anger over reduced communal autonomy. Lange's account provides valuable new insights into the roots of nationalist civil war, broad patterns of conflict, and the mixed effects of colonialism and pluralism.

By: Matthew Lange
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691274492
ISBN 10: 0691274495
Series: Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Matthew Lange is professor of sociology at McGill University. He is the author of Killing Others: A Natural History of Ethnic Violence; Comparative-Historical Methods; Educations in Ethnic Violence: Identity, Educational Bubbles, and Resource Mobilization; and Lineages of Despotism and Development: British Colonialism and State Power.