Lexington Books Imperialism on Trial: International Oversight of Colonial Rule in Historical Perspective

The creation of the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission (PMC) at the close of the First World War, and its successor, the United Nations Trusteeship Council (TC), following the Second, were watersheds in the history of modern imperialism. For the first time, the international community had asserted that the well-being of colonial peoples was not merely the private concern of metropolitan states, but a shared responsibility of humankind that transcended national boundaries. Editors R.M. Douglas, Michael D. Callahan, and Elizabeth Bishop have assembled a wide array of scholars to assess the relative weight to be placed on international influence in the process of decolonization. Imperialism on Trial reveals, across a broad cross-section of geographical and political settings, the operation of the complicated and often conflicted dynamic between the national and international dimensions of colonialism in its final and most historically consequential phase. Review A valuable contribution to the historical debate over twentieth-century colonialism, especially between wars. All of these essays raise important questions and indicate the rich potential of a subject like the interaction of imperialism and internationalism in the contemporary world.--Journal Of Colonialism and Colonial History This is an innovative and original collection of essays on a topic of considerable contemporary interest.... The scope of the collection ranges widely, to include India and Japan as well as the Middle Eastern and African mandates, and also includes contributions on the domestic repercussions of these 'international responsibilities', the reactions of the NAACP in the United States, and the Left in the United Kingdom. This is a most valuable contribution to the history of a very particular kind of 'late imperialism', or more properly, as the title indicates, of 'international oversight'. It is also timely in its treatment of issues which have not, as might have been anticipated, entirely disappeared from the international scene.--Peter Sluglett, University of Utah About the Author R. M. Douglas is Associate Professor of History at Colgate University. Michael D. Callahan is Associate Professor of History at Kettering University. Elizabeth Bishop teaches Middle Eastern history at the University of Texas at Austin.