Empire of the Senses: Bodily Encounters in Imperial India and the Philippines by Andrew J. Rotter (review)

uses the paired figures of Johnson and Burke to highlight metropolitan ambivalence toward imperialism—a welcome antidote to the assumption that empire was universally and uncritically celebrated in Britain—and there is an implied moral critique of empire in the tragic outcomes of Ostenaco’s and Mai’s entanglements. But there is no sustained analysis of the similarities and differences between the North American and Pacific contexts, nor is there an attempt to analyze or theorize British imperialism in a more general way. Thus, despite its rich texture and compelling prose, the book contributes less to a broader understanding of the place of each of these three men and their contexts in global history than it might have done.