Book ID: CBB875010001

Empire in the Air: airline travel and the African diaspora (2017)

unapi

Bhimull, Chandra D. (Author)


New York University Press


Publication Date: 2017
Edition Details: Book series: ocial transformations in American anthropology
Physical Details: 203
Language: English

Empire in the Air is at once a history of aviation, and an examination of how air travel changed lives along the transatlantic corridor of the African diaspora. Focusing on Britain and its Caribbean colonies, Chandra Bhimull reveals how the black West Indies shaped the development of British Airways. Bhimull offers a unique analysis of early airline travel, illuminating the links among empire, aviation and diaspora, and in do so provides insights into how racially oppressed people experienced air travel. The emergence of artificial flight revolutionized the movement of people and power, and Bhimull makes the connection between airplanes and the other vessels that have helped make and maintain the African diaspora: the slave ships of the Middle Passage, the tracks of the Underground Railroad, and Marcus Garvey's black-owned ocean liner. As a new technology, airline travel retained the racialist ideas and practices that were embedded in British imperialism, and these ideas shaped every aspect of how commercial aviation developed, from how airline routes were set, to who could travel easily and who could not. The author concludes with a look at airline travel today, suggesting that racism is still enmeshed in the banalities of contemporary flight.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB875010001/

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Authors & Contributors
Bilotkach, Volodymyr
Arun Chandu
Taylor, Jack
Cajetan Nwabueze Iheka
Ukelina, Bekeh Utietiang
Lawrance, Benjamin Nicholas
Concepts
Aviation, commercial
Transportation
Technology and race
Imperialism
Colonialism
Business history
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
Places
Africa
Great Britain
United States
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Southern states (U.S.)
Nigeria
Institutions
Australasian Aerial Transport
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC)
Automobiles Citroën
Pan American World Airways
Lufthansa
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