'A cultured English public in Italy' : Expatriates, cultural propoganda and the British Institute of Florence, 1900-1940

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of the British expatriate community in Florence in the early twentieth century through the cultural institution that they established during the First World War as part of the British propaganda effort in Italy: the British Institute of Florence. By using the British Institute as a case study, the thesis demonstrates how ideas of being British played a major role in the ways expatriates conceived of themselves in relation to their immediate Italian environment, but also to their homeland and the wider British empire. Using personal and official correspondence between individuals in Florence and London, the British embassy in Rome, the British Council, and the Foreign Office, as well as newspaper articles and memoirs, this thesis reconstructs the complex network of relationships that connected Florence to Britain. Until recently the history of expatriate groups has been generally overlooked and this thesis aims to contribute to a growing historiography on overseas British communities. It argues that the British expatriates, or Anglo-Florentines, involved in the foundation and administration of the British Institute of Florence were influenced by an imperial worldview that affected their motivations for establishing the Institute, as well as the ways in which they conducted their programmes of cultural outreach. The link between imperialism and interwar cultural propaganda has not until now been explored, and this thesis demonstrates that an intimate relationship between the two existed. Furthermore, although the Institute provided the model for similar cultural centres opened by the British Council around the world, its role in Britain’s cultural propaganda effort has not been the subject of any major historical study. By addressing these issues, this thesis contributes new insights into the construction of expatriate identity, interwar cultural propaganda and cultural institutions, and the persistence of imperial ideas outside the empire.