Alan Lester

Alan Lester is a British historian, historical geographer and author who has worked for Sussex University since 2000.^[1] He was appointed Professor of Historical Geography in 2006. He is known for his research on imperial networks, colonial humanitarianism and imperial governance.^[2]

In Colonisation and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance he and co-author Fae Dussart analysed the ways in which men considering themselves humane oversaw the destruction of Indigenous societies. His book Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire, he examined how imperial governance worked 'everywhere and all at once' across the British Empire at key moments during the nineteenth century.

Lester gave the Distinguished Historical Geographer Lecture at the 2022 Association of American Geographers annual conference. He is co-editor of the Manchester University Press's Studies in Imperialism research monograph series. Lester has been described as “the pioneer of the idea” of “a key concept much used in recent ‘new imperial history’ writing … that of the imperial network” ^[3]

Lester has written of his concern at the recent politicisation of imperial history, and critiqued British academic Nigel Biggar's representation of colonialism.^[4][5]

Selected works

• Lester, Alan (1996). From Colonisation to Democracy: A New Historical Geography of South Africa. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-0-7556-2600-7.
• Lester, Alan; Binns, Tony; Nel (2000). South Africa Past, Present and Future. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0582356269.
• Lester, Alan (2001). Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-century South Africa and Britain. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-25914-9.^[6][7][8][9]
• Lambert, David; Lester, Alan, eds. (2006). Colonial Lives Across the British Empire: Imperial Careering in the Long Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84770-4.
• Lester, Alan; Dussart, Fae (2014). Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-00783-3.^[10][11][12]
• Damodaran, Vinita; Winterbottom, Anna; Lester, Alan, eds (2015) .The East India Company and the Natural World. ISBN 978-1-349-49109-4.
• Laidlaw, Z.; Lester, Alan, eds. (2015). Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism: Land Holding, Loss and Survival in an Interconnected World. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-45236-8.
• Lester, Alan; Boehme, Kate; Mitchell, Peter (2021). Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-56747-3.
• Lester, Alan (2021). Deny and Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars. SunRise Publishing. ISBN 978-1-914489-14-3.^[13]
• Lester, Alan, ed. (2024). The Truth About Empire: Real Histories of British Colonialism. Hurst Publishers. ISBN 978-1-80526-143-8.

References

1. "University of Sussex". profiles.sussex.ac.uk. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
2. "Alan Lester". Alan Lester. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
3. Howe, Stephen, ed. (2020-07-24). The New Imperial Histories Reader. doi:10.4324/9781003060871. ISBN 9781003060871. S2CID 160751035.
4. Lester, Alan (2023). Deny and Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars (2nd ed.). London: SunRise Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-9144891-4-3.
5. Lester, Alan (2023-06-02). "The British Empire in the Culture War: Nigel Biggar's Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 51 (4): 763–795. doi:10.1080/03086534.2023.2209947. ISSN 0308-6534. S2CID 259061156.
6. Clayton, Daniel (2003). "Reviews: Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain". Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. 35 (1): 189–190. Bibcode:2003EnPlA..35..189C. doi:10.1068/a3501rvw. ISSN 0308-518X. S2CID 157397798.
7. Keegan, Timothy (2002). "COMPETING COLONIAL DISCOURSES Imperial Networks : Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain. By A LAN L ESTER . London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Pp. xii+257. £55; $90 ( ISBN 0-415-19850-X); £16.99; $27.95, paperback ( ISBN 0-415-25914-2)". The Journal of African History. 43 (2): 313–376. doi:10.1017/S0021853702388297. S2CID 162537782.
8. Potter, Simon J. (2007). "Webs, Networks, and Systems: Globalization and the Mass Media in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Empire". Journal of British Studies. 46 (3): 621–646. doi:10.1086/515446. S2CID 145304674.
9. Anderson, Peter (2004). "Review of Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain". Kronos (30): 247–249. ISSN 0259-0190. JSTOR 41056527.
10. McHugh, P.G. (2016). "Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire, by Alan Lester and Fae Dussart". The English Historical Review. 131 (553): 1544–1546. doi:10.1093/ehr/cew337.
11. Exeter, CIGH (4 November 2015). "Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance". Imperial & Global Forum. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
12. Forth, Aidan (2016). "Review of Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire". Victorian Studies. 58 (4): 756–758. doi:10.2979/victorianstudies.58.4.23. ISSN 0042-5222. JSTOR 10.2979/victorianstudies.58.4.23.
13. Exeter, CIGH (12 July 2022). "Hanley on Lester's Deny & Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars (2022)". Imperial & Global Forum. Retrieved 15 June 2023.

External websites

Official website