Greg Knotts: This abstract came from the back cover of the book.
Colonial lands, which in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century included most of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean, provided a haven for Europeans whose sexual inclinations did not fit neatly into the constraints of European society. Certain colonies became known as sites of homosexual license. Bonds between men in the colonial world ranged across a wide spectrum — from friendship with other Europeans to relationships with native men or boys. Robert Aldrich argues that homosexual inclination exercised a profound influence on the political attitudes and artistic works of many Europeans in the colonial world.
"Colonialism and Homosexuality" is a thorough investigation of the connections between homosexuality and imperialism from the late 1800s — the era of 'new imperialism' — until the period of decolonisation. Aldrich reconstructs liaisons, including those of famous men such as Cecil Rhodes, E.M. Forster and Andre Gide, and their historical contexts. Each of the case studies is a micro-history of a particular colonial situation, a sexual encounter and its wider implications for cultural and political life.
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