Martin Thomas is Professor of Imperial History at the University of ExeterRichard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University of Exeter

• Introduction: rhetorics of empire – Martin Thomas and Richard Toye1 ‘The people are grateful’: the discourse of modernization in the concentration camps of the South African War, 1899–1902 – Elizabeth van Heyningen2 ‘We don’t want a pirate empire’: imperial governance, the Transvaal crisis, and the anxieties of Liberal rhetoric on empire – Simon Mackley3 Civilization, empire and humanity: Theodore Roosevelt's second corollary to the Monroe Doctrine – Charlie Laderman4 Franklin D. Roosevelt and America’s empire of anti-imperialism – Andrew Preston 5 ‘The real question at issue’: Mers el-Kébir and the rhetoric of imperial confrontation in July 1940 – Rachel Chin6 French late colonial rhetoric, “myth” and imperial reason – Martin Shipway7 ‘Boom! goes the Congo’: the rhetoric of control and Belgium’s late colonial state – Matthew Stanard8 The hard side of soft power: Spanish rhetorics of empire from the 1950s to the 1970s – Andreas Stucki9 Repression, reprisals, and rhetorics of massacre in Algeria’s war – Martin Thomas10 Arguing about Hola Camp: the rhetorical consequences of a colonial massacre – Richard Toye11 Extended families or bodily decomposition? Biological metaphors in the age of European decolonization - Elizabeth Buettner12 Rhetoric of the realm: monarchy in New Zealand, political rhetoric and adjusting to the end of empire - Harshan KumarasinghamIndex

‘It is a pleasure to read a volume in which rhetoric is subject to such sustained scrutiny across such a wide range of modern imperial contexts…I would simply direct readers to an engaging collection of high-quality chapters focused on subjecting a single theme to sustained and invigorating scrutiny.’Christopher Prior, University of Southampton, Journal of contemporary History, Vol. 54, No. 2