# Alan Lester > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alan_Lester > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alan_Lester.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lester > Source revision: 1354223453 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|British historian and historical geographer}} '''Alan Lester''' is a British historical geographer and author who has worked for [Sussex University](/source/Sussex_University) since 2000.{{cite web |url=https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p114412-alan-lester |website=profiles.sussex.ac.uk |access-date=15 June 2023 |title=University of Sussex }} He was appointed Professor of [Historical Geography](/source/Historical_geography) in 2006. He is known for his research on imperial networks, colonial humanitarianism and imperial governance.{{Cite web |title=Alan Lester |url=https://alanlester.co.uk/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Alan Lester |language=en-GB}} In ''Colonisation and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance'' he and co-author [Fae Dussart](/source/Fae_Dussart) analysed the ways in which men considering themselves humane oversaw the destruction of Indigenous societies. His book ''Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire,'' he examined how imperial governance worked 'everywhere and all at once' across the British Empire at key moments during the nineteenth century. Lester gave the Distinguished Historical Geographer Lecture at the 2022 [Association of American Geographers](/source/American_Association_of_Geographers) annual conference. He is co-editor of the [Manchester University Press's](/source/Manchester_University_Press) Studies in Imperialism research monograph series. Lester has been described as “the pioneer of the idea” of “a key concept much used in recent ‘new imperial history’ writing … that of the imperial network” {{Cite book |date=2020-07-24 |editor-last=Howe |editor-first=Stephen |title=The New Imperial Histories Reader |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003060871 |doi=10.4324/9781003060871|isbn=9781003060871 |s2cid=160751035 }} Lester has written of his concern at the recent politicisation of imperial history, and critiqued British academic [Nigel Biggar](/source/Nigel_Biggar)'s representation of colonialism.{{Cite book |last=Lester |first=Alan |title=Deny and Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars |publisher=SunRise Publishing Limited |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-9144891-4-3 |edition=2nd |location=London}}{{Cite journal |last=Lester |first=Alan |date=2023-06-02 |title=The British Empire in the Culture War: Nigel Biggar's ''Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning'' |journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=763–795 |doi=10.1080/03086534.2023.2209947 |s2cid=259061156 |issn=0308-6534|doi-access=free }} ==Selected works== *Lester, Alan (1996). ''From Colonisation to Democracy: A New Historical Geography of South Africa''. I.B.Tauris. {{ISBN|978-0-7556-2600-7}} *Lester, Alan; Binns, Tony; Nel (2000). ''South Africa Past, Present and Future''. [Prentice Hall](/source/Prentice_Hall). {{ISBN|978-0-582-35626-9}} *{{cite book |last1=Lester |first1=Alan |title=Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-century South Africa and Britain |date=2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-25914-9 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Clayton |first1=Daniel |title=Reviews: Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain |journal=Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space |date=2003 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=189–190 |doi=10.1068/a3501rvw |bibcode=2003EnPlA..35..189C |s2cid=157397798 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3501rvw |language=en |issn=0308-518X|url-access=subscription }}{{cite journal |last1=Keegan |first1=Timothy |title=COMPETING COLONIAL DISCOURSES Imperial Networks : Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain. By A LAN L ESTER . London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Pp. xii+257. £55; $90 ( ISBN 0-415-19850-X); £16.99; $27.95, paperback ( ISBN 0-415-25914-2). |journal=The Journal of African History |date=2002 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=313–376 |doi=10.1017/S0021853702388297|s2cid=162537782 }}{{cite journal |last1=Potter |first1=Simon J. |title=Webs, Networks, and Systems: Globalization and the Mass Media in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century British Empire |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=2007 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=621–646 |doi=10.1086/515446|s2cid=145304674 }}{{cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=Peter |title=Review of Imperial Networks: Creating Identities in Nineteenth-Century South Africa and Britain |journal=Kronos |date=2004 |issue=30 |pages=247–249 |jstor=41056527 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41056527 |issn=0259-0190}} *{{cite book |editor2-last=Lester |editor2-first=Alan |editor1-last=Lambert |editor1-first=David |title=Colonial Lives Across the British Empire: Imperial Careering in the Long Nineteenth Century |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-84770-4 |language=en}} *{{cite book |last1=Lester |first1=Alan |last2=Dussart |first2=Fae |title=Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00783-3 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=McHugh |first1=P.G. |title=Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire, by Alan Lester and Fae Dussart |journal=The English Historical Review |date=2016 |volume=131 |issue=553 |pages=1544–1546 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cew337 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/131/553/1544/2990132|url-access=subscription }}{{cite web |last1=Exeter |first1=CIGH |title=Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance |url=https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2015/11/04/colonization-and-the-origins-of-humanitarian-governance/ |website=Imperial & Global Forum |access-date=15 June 2023 |language=en |date=4 November 2015}}{{cite journal |last1=Forth |first1=Aidan |title=Review of Colonization and the Origins of Humanitarian Governance: Protecting Aborigines across the Nineteenth-Century British Empire |journal=Victorian Studies |date=2016 |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=756–758 |doi=10.2979/victorianstudies.58.4.23 |jstor=10.2979/victorianstudies.58.4.23 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/victorianstudies.58.4.23 |issn=0042-5222|url-access=subscription }} *Damodaran, Vinita; Winterbottom, Anna; Lester, Alan, eds (2015) .''The East India Company and the Natural World''. {{ISBN|978-1-349-49109-4}} *{{cite book |editor1-last=Laidlaw |editor1-first=Z. |editor2-last=Lester |editor2-first=Alan |title=Indigenous Communities and Settler Colonialism: Land Holding, Loss and Survival in an Interconnected World |date=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-45236-8}} *{{cite book |last1=Lester |first1=Alan |last2=Boehme |first2=Kate |last3=Mitchell |first3=Peter |title=Ruling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth-Century British Empire |date=2021 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-56747-3 |language=en}} *{{cite book |last1=Lester |first1=Alan |title=Deny and Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars |date=2021 |publisher=SunRise Publishing |isbn=978-1-914489-14-3 |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Exeter |first1=CIGH |title=Hanley on Lester's Deny & Disavow: Distancing the Imperial Past in the Culture Wars (2022) |url=https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2022/07/12/hanley-on-lesters-deny-disavow-distancing-the-imperial-past-in-the-culture-wars-2022/ |website=Imperial & Global Forum |access-date=15 June 2023 |language=en |date=12 July 2022}} *{{cite book |editor1-last=Lester |editor1-first=Alan |title=The Truth About Empire: Real Histories of British Colonialism |date=2024 |publisher=Hurst Publishers |isbn=978-1-80526-143-8 |language=en}} ==References== {{reflist}} == External websites == {{Official|https://alanlester.co.uk/}}{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Alan}} Category:Academics of the University of Sussex Category:Historians of the British Empire Category:British historical geographers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people {{UK-historian-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alan Lester](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lester) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lester?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.