Name: Daughters of the Empire: Their Lives and Times from the Seventeenth Century to Independence
SKU: VIRAGOPRESSLTD-
Availability: OutOfStock

‘Sharply observed, snappily written and thoroughly researched, She Merchants provides a fabulous panorama of a largely ignored area of social history. Katie Hickman successfully challenges the stereotype of the snobbish, matron-like memsahib by deploying a riveting gallery of powerful and often eccentric women ranging from stowaways and runaways through courtesans and society beauties to Generals’ feisty wives and Viceroys’ waspish sisters. It is full of surprises and new material and completely engaging from beginning to end’ William Dalrymple The first British women to set foot in India did so in the very early seventeenth century, two and a half centuries before the Raj. Women made their way to India for exactly the same reasons men did – to carve out a better life for themselves. In the early days, India was a place where the slates of ‘blotted pedigrees’ were wiped clean; bankrupts given a chance to make good; a taste for adventure satisfied – for women. They went and worked as milliners, bakers, dress-makers, actresses, portrait painters, maids, shop-keepers, governesses, teachers, boarding house proprietors, midwives, nurses, missionaries, doctors, geologists, plant-collectors, writers, travellers, and – most surprising of all – traders. As wives, courtesans and she-merchants, these tough adventuring women were every bit as intrepid as their men, the buccaneering sea captains and traders in whose wake they followed; their voyages to India were extraordinarily daring leaps into the unknown. The history of the British in India has cast a long shadow over these women; Memsahibs, once a word of respect, is now more likely to be a byword for snobbery and even racism. And it is true: prejudice of every kind – racial, social, imperial, religious – did cloud many aspects of British involvement in India. But was not invariably the case

Product information

Author	Hickman, Katie	Manufacturer	Virago Press Ltd
Brand	Virago Press Ltd	NumberOfItems	1
Item Weight	1.50 Pounds	ItemDimensions	6.30 x 1.50 x 9.37Inches
binding	Hardcover	Amazon Category	Books » History » Asian History » India History
EAN	9780349008257	ISBN	0349008256

Weight	1.50 lbs

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.

Daughters of the Empire: Their Lives and Times from the Seventeenth Century to Independence

Product information

Reviews

Related Products

Login