Greater Britain: A Record of Travel in English-Speaking Countries During 1866-7

This is a primary document from a pivotal moment in British imperial history. In 1866, a young Cambridge graduate named Charles Wentworth Dilke embarked on a grand tour of the English-speaking world, journeying through the post-Civil War American South, Ceylon, Tasmania, India, and the Pacific. The resulting travelogue, published in 1869, captures the British Empire at a critical turning point. Dilke observes a Virginia still reckoning with emancipation, Buddhist monks in Ceylon resisting Christian missionaries, and colonial India under British rule. What makes the book historically electrifying is its tension: Dilke would become a Liberal MP who championed women's suffrage and labor rights, yet his travel narrative helped ignite a new wave of British imperialism. Here is a Victorian progressive unselfconsciously revealing his own blind spots about race and empire, while documenting a world on the cusp of massive change. For readers interested in the complex roots of modern Anglo-American attitudes toward race, empire, and national identity, this remains an essential and uncomfortable read.