Cosmopolitan Nationalism in the Victorian Empire

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. ‘How rich my life has been, not in itself but in its associations’: An Introduction to Alfred Webb

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 1-12

3. ‘Interested in people of all countries, especially of America’: A Quaker Family in the Atlantic World

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 13-33

4. ‘The labours and responsibilities nearly killed me’: Webb and Social Activism in Victorian Dublin

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 34-59

5. ‘Some curious characters floated on the surface’: Webb’s Entry into Nationalist Politics

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 60-84

6. ‘I am willing to take any dangerous part’: Webb in the World of Parnell and Gladstone

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 85-105

7. ‘A union of hearts firmly based on love of Ireland’: Cosmopolitan Friendship in the Imperial Metropolis

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 106-127

8. ‘I stand beside you as a comrade’: Irish and Indian Political Collaboration

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 128-153

9. ‘Politics is a difficult and anxious game’: An Assessment of Webb

   • Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre

   Pages 154-173

10. Back Matter

    Pages 174-229

    PDF

The first biography of Alfred Webb, Irish nationalist and president of the 1894 Indian National Congress. The biography explores how Webb viewed nationalism as a vehicle for global social justice. Drawing on archives in Britain, Ireland and India the author reveals how Irish and Indians used cosmopolitan London to create networks across the Empire.

• bibliography
• India
• Polis

'A fascinating account of an important, though hitherto neglected figure in Irish political life. Scholarly and lucidly written, it spans the range of Webb's activities and influences as a humanitarian reformer, activist and man of letters, both in Ireland and internationally, and provides a thoughtful interpretation of his personality. It is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the period.'

- Carla King, St. Patrick's College, Dublin City University

'This critical biography adds to the broader understanding of the global reach of Irish nationalist thinking in the pre-1916 period...' - History Ireland

'The academic community is deeply in debt to Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre for this well-researched and nuanced study.

Webb's career 'reveals the fabric of multicultural social relations in late nineteenth-century Britain, in which individuals from the periphery of the British Empire met at the imperial core and found an international context to their nationalism'. Regan-Lefebvre has produced an important contribution to the study of Victorian Irish and Imperial radicalism. ' - Eugenio F. Biagini, English Historical Review

'An immensely readable and valuable addition to Irish, imperial and Victorian historiography. Regan-Lefebvre's findings are fresh and unexpected. Her account of Webb's Indian National Congress presidency, although clearly the high point of his life and this book, is honest in its anti-climactic portrayal. Cosmopolitan Nationalism in the Victorian Empire, although presented as biography of a peripheral Irish political figure, delivers much more than it promises: a room with a cosmopolitan view.' - Kate O'Malley, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

JENNIFER REGAN-LEFEBVRE, Lecturer in Modern History, University of Exeter, UK

Policies and ethics