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In his letter ¡°End ideologues¡¯ reign over imperial history¡± (3 May), Zareer Masani accuses us of ¡°character assassination¡±. To use his words, we take strong exception to this unsubstantiated allegation. Nowhere in anything either of us has written is there an attack on anyone¡¯s character. Nor do we convey a ¡°blanket condemnation of empire¡±. We have both argued repeatedly against both nostalgic defence and simple denunciation of empires.

Masani may very well disagree with us about the historical significance of current arguments over the ¡°case for colonialism¡±. But we invite readers to compare the tone of his letter with that of our article ¡°Don¡¯t mistake nostalgia about the British empire for scholarship¡± (Opinion, 26 April), and to decide for themselves which is a ¡°diatribe¡± conveying ¡°hysteria¡±.

James McDougall
Fellow and tutor in modern history
Trinity College, University of Oxford

Kim A. Wagner
Senior lecturer in British imperial history?
Queen Mary University of London

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