Imperial Family Biographies and New Approaches to the Family in Histories of the British Empire, c.1650–c.1950

Abstract Recently, there have been several histories of the British Empire written through the lens of a single family. These works – which this review refers to as imperial family biographies – trace the activities, ideas, and/or connections of a group of individuals from the same family, usually spanning more than one generation, as they roved across the time and space of empire. They facilitate an understanding of a networked, informal British Empire, held together by personal bonds and material goods, and an imperial politics shaped by emotions, affections, and identities. Currently, imperial family biographies tend to prioritize asking what families can reveal about empire, rather than what empire can reveal about families; family networks are used as case studies, dictating the bounds of study and illustrating wider imperial themes. This review argues that this genre of history writing is most successful when families are interpreted as imperial agents that drove historical change, rather than merely conduits for individual action or means by which individuals were connected across empire. This can be achieved through a thorough engagement with the historiography on families and through centralizing concepts such as family identity, family culture, family structure, and family function.