Parnell of Egypt: Empire, Islam and the Late Victorian Press

This book explores reporting and commentary on British interventions in Egypt and the Sudan in the 1880s in over 200 British and Irish periodicals. The most comprehensive study of the popular press, public opinion, and imperial policy to date, The Parnell of Egypt provides an innovative examination of Britain, Ireland, and the Islamic world within a single analytical frame. It demonstrates how journalists, readers, and politicians on both sides of the Irish Sea consistently looked to the history of Anglo-Irish relations and Irish policy as models to evaluate and advocate for how the government should respond to imperial events. It also investigates how concepts of civilization and modernity deeply influenced both contemporary views on events in northeast Africa and thinking about the region’s future. In addition, this study challenges long-held scholarly and popular assumptions about the character of late Victorian imperialism, demonstrating that older moralistic ideas still held considerable influence on popular and political responses to Government policy in the region. The Parnell of Egypt offers a deeply researched account of how popular knowledge of empire and imperial policy developed in real time, creating a deeper understanding of the intersections of politics and popular imperialism and the shape and character of Victorian imperial sensibilities.