After Empire: National Questions and the making of International Order in Southeastern Europe

The book offers a new interpretation of the cultural and intellectual exchanges between Britain and southeastern Europe in an age of imperial transformation. It systematically examines how ethnic difference was conceptualised and managed across multinational imperial formations such as Britain, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. Central to the analysis are British scholars and public intellectuals who helped found what became the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Drawing on extensive archival research conducted in the SSEES collections, the book traces how these actors navigated competing nationalisms and translated the region’s national questions for British and international audiences. Its focus on past attempts to reconcile liberal democracy and nationalism with imperial rule continues to resonate today, as intellectuals confront the resurgence of ethno-nationalist politics and Britain’s shifting place in Europe.