Empires of the senses: bodily encounters in imperial India and the Philippines

This text offers a sensory history of the British in India from the formal imposition of their rule to its end and the Americans in the Philippines from annexation to independence.

A social and cultural history of empire, it focuses on quotidian life.

It analyzes how the senses created mutual impressions of the agents of imperialism and their subjects and highlights connections between apparently disparate items, including the lived experience of empire, the otherwise unremarkable comments (and complaints) found in memoirs and reports, the appearance of lepers, the sound of bells, the odour of excrement, the feel of cloth against skin, the first taste of a mango or meat spiced with cumin.