Nabobs: Empire and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Tillman Nechtman explores the relationship between Britain and its empire in the late eighteenth century through the controversy that surrounded employees of the East India Company. Labelled as ‘nabobs' by their critics, Company employees returned from India, bringing the subcontinent's culture with them – souvenirs like clothing, foods, jewels, artwork, and animals. To the nabobs, imperial keepsakes were a way of narrating their imperial biographies, lives that braided Britain and India to...