Book review: barbed-wire imperialism: Britain's empire of camps, 1876-1903 by Aidan Forth

In Barbed-Wire Imperialism: Britain’s Empire of Camps, 1876-1903, Aidan Forth presents a history of the concentration camp during the late nineteenth century, showing its development to be rooted less in colonial military conflict than in Victorian ideals concerning the preservation of physical and moral health. This is a fascinating account that describes the forces that created and maintained camp networks within the British empire without losing sight of the human suffering of those interned, writes Mahon Murphy, and also underscores their continued relevance to twenty-first-century liberal empire.