REVIEWER MEETS REVIEWED
A VIRTUAL SEMINAR SERIES OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
The Empire’s New Clothes: the Myth of the Commonwealth
Thursday 18 February 2021 at 4.00-6.00pm (GMT)
The British Museum’s Anthropology Library and Research Centre, in conjunction with the Royal Anthropological Institute, is pleased to present ‘Reviewer meets Reviewed’,
a discussion between author Prof Philip Murphy and reviewer Prof Justin Willis
with Prof Richard Fardon as chair.
This webinar was held on Zoom.
A video of the event is available here
In the wake of Brexit, the Commonwealth has been identified as an important body for future British trade and diplomacy, but few know what it actually does. How is it organised and what has held it together for so long? How important is the Queen’s role as Head of the Commonwealth? Most importantly, why has it had such a troubled recent past, and is it realistic to imagine that its fortunes might be reversed? In The Empire’s New Clothes, Murphy strips away the gilded self-image of the Commonwealth to reveal an irrelevant institution afflicted by imperial amnesia. He offers a personal perspective on this complex and poorly understood institution, and asks if it can ever escape from the shadow of the British Empire to become an organisation based on shared values, rather than a shared history.
