Britain’s race for Africa continues to draw significant scholarly interest. Traditionally, studies have focused on well-documented figures such as explorers, missionaries and capitalists. Working against the trend, this is the first book to concentrate solely on the role of engineers. It analyses the imperial diasporas, identities and networks that developed as the British engineering profession established connections on the African continent.Using a wide range of primary sources that include correspondence, diaries, technical reports, institutional minutes and periodicals, Andersen reconstructs the networks and activities of Britain’s engineers while focusing on London as an imperial engineering centre. By treating Britain and the empire as an interconnected zone, he analyses the ways in which ideas, people and technologies circulated during this period.

"'British Engineers and Africa demonstrates the significance both of engineers as active protagonists of the British empire and of imperial interconnections in shaping the profession and identity of British engineering. This excellent book should be required reading for scholars and students of the “new” imperial history and for those interested in the confluence of science, technology, and European imperialism.'"