Last Weapons: Hunger Strikes and Fasts in the British Empire

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Last Weapons: Hunger Strikes and Fasts in the British Empire, 1890-1948 Volume 16

History > Europe - Great Britain - General

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PublisherUniversity of California Press
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139780520301016
PublishedJun 22 2019
Dimension8.9 X 5.9 X 0.6 inches
Weight 0.75 pounds
BISACHistory > Europe - Great Britain - General
Categories(Single Author) Asian American
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

Last Weapons explains how the use of hunger strikes and fasts in political protest became a global phenomenon. Exploring the proliferation of hunger as a form of protest between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, Kevin Grant traces this radical tactic as it spread through trans-imperial networks among revolutionaries and civil-rights activists from Russia to Britain to Ireland to India and beyond. He shows how the significance of hunger strikes and fasts refracted across political and cultural boundaries, and how prisoners experienced and understood their own starvation, which was then poorly explained by medical research. Prison staff and political officials struggled to manage this challenge not only to their authority, but to society's faith in the justice of liberal governance. Whether starving for the vote or national liberation, prisoners embodied proof of their own assertions that the rule of law enforced injustices that required redress and reform. Drawing upon deep archival research, the author offers a highly original examination of the role of hunger in contesting an imperial world, a tactic that still resonates today.

Author Bio

Grant is a historian of modern Britain and Ireland, European imperialism, and international humanitarianism. He has authored Last Weapons: Hunger Strikes and Fasts in the British Empire, 1890-1948 (2019), The Congo Free State and the New Imperialism (2016), A Civilised Savagery: Britain and the New Slaveries in Africa, 1884-1926 (2005), and he is the co-editor of Beyond Sovereignty: Britain, Empire, and Transnationalism, c. 1880-1950 (2007).

Grant received the John R. Hatch Class of 1925 Excellence in Teaching Award at Hamilton in 2003. He completed his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1997.

Education

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
M.A., University of Chicago
B.A., University of California, Berkeley

Source: Hamilton

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