The Colonisation of Time is a highly original and long overdue examination of the ways that western-European and specifically British concepts and rituals of time were imposed on other cultures as a fundamental component of colonization during the nineteenth century. Based on a wealth of primary sources, it explores the intimate relationship between the colonization of time and space in two British settler-colonies (Victoria, Australia and the Cape Colony, South Africa) and its instrumental role in the exportation of Christianity, capitalism, and modernity, thus adding new depth to our understanding of imperial power and of the ways in which it was exercised and limited. All those intrigued by the concept of time will find this book of interest, for it illustrates how western-European time's rise to a position of global dominance—from the clock to the seven-day week—is one of the most pervasive, enduring, and taken-for-granted legacies of colonization in today's world.
Author(s): Giordano Nanni
Series: Studies in Imperialism
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Commentary: size optimized
Pages: 273
City: Manchester
Tags: colonialism;time
Front matter
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
List of figures and maps
List of abbreviations
General editor’s introduction
Acknowledgments
Note on terminology
Introduction
Clocks, Sabbaths and seven-day weeks: the forging of European temporal identities
Terra sine tempore: colonial constructions of ‘Aboriginal time’
Cultural curfews: the contestation of time in settler-colonial Victoria
‘The moons are always out of order’: colonial constructions of ‘African time’
Empire of the seventh day: time and the Sabbath beyond the Cape frontiers
Lovedale: missionary schools and the reform of ‘African time’
Conclusion: from colonisation to globalisation
Select bibliography
Index
