Haunted by Empire

"A milestone in U.S. historiography, Haunted by Empire brings postcolonial critiques to bear on North American history and draws on that history to question the analytic conventions of postcolonial studies. The contributors to this innovative collection examine the critical role of "domains of the intimate" in the consolidation of colonial power. They demonstrate how the categories of difference underlying colonialism -- the distinctions advanced as the justification for the colonizer's rule of the colonized -- were enacted and reinforced in intimate realms from the bedroom to the classroom to the medical examining room. Together the essays focus attention on the politics of comparison -- on how colonizers differentiated one group or set of behaviors from another -- and on the circulation of knowledge and ideologies within and between imperial projects. Ultimately, this collection forces a rethinking of what historians choose to compare and of the epistemological grounds on which those choices are based. Haunted by Empire includes Ann Laura Stoler's seminal essay "Tense and Tender Ties" as well as her bold introduction, which carves out the exciting new analytic and methodological