Captives - Linda Colley - A History of Mediterranean, American, and Indian Imprisonment

Aug 6, 2026

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Captives by Linda Colley examines how captivity shaped encounters between Britons and peoples across the Mediterranean, the Atlantic world, and South Asia. Through themed case studies—from Tangier and the sea to revolutions, war, and conquest—the work traces stories of constraint, cultural conflict, and humiliation. It connects personal captivity narratives to wider imperial expansion, showing how captivity influenced British perceptions, dependence, and historical writing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages490

Reading Time12 h 35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Part One - Mediterranean Captives and Constraints

Tangier

The Crescent and the Sea

Telling the Tale

Confronting Islam

Part Two - America Captives and Embarrassments

Different Americans, Different Britons

War and a New World

Revolutions

Part Three - India Captives and Conquest

Another Passage to India

The Tiger and the Sword

Captives in Uniform

Epilogue - To Afghanistan and Beyond

Appendix - The Captivity Archive

Notes

About the Author

[OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Table of Contents Title Page Dedication Epigraph Praise List of Illustrations Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION Part One-MEDITERRANEAN Captives and Constraints ONE-Tangier TWO-The Crescent and the Sea THREE-Telling the Tale FOUR-Confronting Islam Part Two-AMERICA Captives and Embarrassments FIVE-Different Americans, Different Britons SIX-War and a New World SEVEN-Revolutions Part Three-INDIA Captives and Conquest EIGHT-Another Passage to India NINE-The Tiger and the Sword TEN-Captives in Uniform EPILOGUE-To Afghanistan and Beyond APPENDIX-The Captivity Archive NOTES About the Author ALSO BY LINDA COLLEY Copyright Page [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) In memory of my mother Marjorie Colley, née Hughes 1920–1998 [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) ‘When the prison-doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out.’Ho Chi Minh, Prison Diary (Hanoi, 1962) [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) Acclaim for Linda Colley’s CAPTIVES “Engaging, gracefully written. . . . Sharp-eyed. . . . There is marvelous detail on every page.” —The New York Times Book Review “Captives is another important and beautifully written book by this firstrank British historian.” —The Irish Times “A sort of White Teeth version of imperial history. . . . A completely original intelligence.” —Financial Times “A brilliantly illuminating study by one of Britain’s most distinguished historians.” —New Statesman “Consistently enlightening. . . . An insightful and stimulating book that presents history with a fresh perspective.” —BookPage “Innovative. . . . Colley brings a contemporary edge to her writing. . . . [She is] one of the most interesting historians at work today.” —The Wilson Quarterly “Colley’s fascinating book links captivity with imperial expansion and underscores the Britons’ ultimate dependence on loyal ‘natives.’ ” —The New York Review of Books “Captives is an invitation to think again about an old story too often told in the same old way. . . . It is a book which should alter the way in which the history not only of the British, but of all the European empires is written.” —London Review of Books “Superb . . . coruscating.” —The Independent on Sunday (London) “Abounds in fascinating human stories and constantly requires the reader toreconsider accepted dogma.” —The Daily Telegraph (London) “Sublimely well written: cunningly paced, beguilingly fluent, deftly allusive, vividly evocative. It is a major contribution to understanding the paradox of the British: the weak who wangled the earth.” —Literary Review “Linda Colley is a great storyteller and she breathes life into the manuscripts she has discovered by captives in the early days of the Empire.” —The Observer (London) “Dexterous, wonderfully subtle.” —The Sunday Times (London) “This fine, thought-provoking book—at once readable and educative—is crammed full of telling insights.” —The Sunday Telegraph (London) “Stunningly revisionist. . . . Almost every page of Captives challenges a settled orthodoxy or opens up a fertile new field for research.” —History Today [OceanofPDF.com](OceanofPDF.com) List of Illustrations The illustrations in this book form an integral part of the text and have been captioned accordingly. Their full titles and provenance are as follows. I am most grateful to the libraries, art galleries and private owners listed below for allowing me to reproduce images in their possession. Images with no provenance cited are from my own collection of prints, books and photographs. 1. Britain as global empire: a detail from an 1893 map (British Library, Maps, 17.c.13) . 2. The Peters World Map, © Akademische Verlagsanstalt, supplied by Oxford Cartographers. 3. The title page of Madagascar: or Robert Drury’s Journal, London, 1729 (Cambridge University Library) . 4. Title page of Wenceslaus Hollar, Divers Prospects in and about Tangier, London, 1673 (National Mari

FAQs

What time and geographic scope does Captives cover?

The book follows captivity experiences tied to encounters across the Mediterranean, the Americas, and India, with an epilogue extending toward Afghanistan and beyond.

How is the book organized?

It is structured into three parts—Mediterranean, America, and India—each developed through named chapters, followed by an epilogue and an appendix.

What key idea connects individual captivity stories to broader historical change?

Captivity is linked to imperial expansion, influencing how Britons understood “natives,” shaped dependence, and helped reframe imperial history.

Aug 6, 2026

Upload by Asher