Who Cared about Losing an Empire? Post-War British Apathy Revisited

Post-war British historians were invariably adamant that the end of empire caused few ripples in contemporary Britain itself – so much so that decades were to pass before the question was ever properly examined. Since the 1990s, new histories have taken a more skeptical approach to the idea that the British people were untroubled by imperial decline, or that it left little or no imprint on everyday life. Yet the wider narrative of widespread apathy still holds considerable sway. This paper takes stock of the empirical stalemate that has emerged and offers a way forward. It takes a closer look at contemporary manifestations of “not caring” about the end of empire, and the rhetorical posturing that invariably accompanied them. It asks why a purported absence of feeling should have been expressed so frequently and fervently; and why it was indulged so freely by stakeholders from opposite ends of the political spectrum. Passionate anti-colonialists and diehard empire loyalists shared a remarkable degree of irritation (bordering on righteous unction) about the stubborn indifference of those they sought to persuade. But it was precisely the performative task of political persuasion that holds the key to understanding this otherwise perplexing emotional vacuum.