L'impero britannico tra storiografia e narrazione

This critical note presents three recent publications in Italian on the history of the British Empire. They are books by the American historian Philippa Levine, the Irish Jan Morris and the German Peter Wende. Very different in organization, inspiration and chronological cover, they belong to the long wave of return of interest for the history of the British empire inaugurated in the 1990s by the 5 vols. "Oxford History of the British Empire". These books are representatives of different historiographical and literary trends: Levine's is very critical and analyzes the Bitish empire mainly as a form of political and economic exploitation, racial discrimination and as a symbol of male dominance. Wende's offers a much more balanced analysis concentrated mainly on its aspects of politico-constituional experiments, often in the forefront of the search for institutional solutions to the problem of ruling a whole range of diverse cultures and traditions. Morris's is the product of a totally different experience developed as journalist, travel reporter, diarist and narrator: his/her book is part of an imposing trilogy dedicated to this most central aspect of modern British history.