It argues that nation building was a more complex and messy affair, involving women and men in a range of social and cultural activities, in a variety of migratory settings, within a unique geo-political context. Taking as a case study Barbados which, in the 1930s, was the most economically impoverished, racially divided, socially disadvantaged and politically conservative of the British West Indian colonies, Empire and nation-building tells the messy, multiple stories of how a colony progressed to a nation.

It is the first book to tell all sides of the independence story and will be of interest to specialists and non-specialists interested in the history of Empire, the Caribbean, of de-colonisation and nation building.

Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The 'romance' of foreign: distance, perspective and an inclusive nationhood
3. The exigencies of 'home': Barbadian poverty and British nation-building
4. Gender and the moral economy
5. Race, nation and the politics of memory
6. A common language of the spirit': cultural awakenings and national belongings
7. From diffidence to desperation: the British, the Americans, the war and the move to Federation
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Tables
Index