… a remarkably useful textbook from which even experienced scholars of bodies and gender, race and imperialism
could learn much. Aidan Beatty, H France Reviews
… a complex and thought-provoking analysis of gender, race, class and empire. Its use of vignettes, maps, paintings and posters alongside masterful scholarships provides a profoundly insightful study of lives inexorably shaped by empire. Ashwiny Kistnareddy, Journal of Modern and Contemporary France
“In an engagingly written narrative, Intimate Empires presents a complex and absorbing analysis of the intersections of gender, race, class, and empire from the mid-eighteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Combining fascinating vignettes with cutting-edge scholarship, the book focuses on the embodied experiences of the men, women, and children-both colonizer and colonized-living lives profoundly shaped by empire. This clearly organized text demonstrates the socially constructed nature of social categories and identities, examining them within multiple shifting colonial contexts.”–Carolyn J. Eichner, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
“At last instructors in modern empire studies have a textbook that fully incorporates the insights of gender studies, paying full attention to both masculinities and femininities. By focusing on the body, Rizzo and Gerontakis make essential connections between race, gender, and colonialism, while their vignettes powerfully demonstrate the many ways that bodies challenged and even subverted unequal power relations.”–Jane Samson, University of Alberta
“Intimate Empires offers a fascinating interpretive overview of recent thinking on gender, race, and empire through deep analysis of images as evidence. Its visual thematic approach, emphasizing identity formation in six critical domains, makes the volume student friendly but also engages scholars in multiple disciplines. It is unique in a crowded field.”–Julia Clancy-Smith, University of Arizona