Book Review: Mappings

tionship to empire – although in this respect Clare Midgley’s introduction did not do the collection justice. I was fascinated by the nuanced way in which women’s agency was conceptualized – most especially in the essay by Hilary McD. Beckles. Her insistence that slave women’s agency should not be interpreted only through the lens of resistance, or rebel politics, is excellent, and well worth reading even if you do not get through the whole collection. But I would suggest that historians and historical geographers of empire (and the postcolonial) learn from their own subjects, and enhance their commitment to drawing on the interpretations and understandings of the past which circulate through the different locations and contexts across which they work.