Image of Prof Nick White

Prof Nick White

Humanities and Social Science

Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies

My research focuses on the history of decolonisation (particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia) and international business history (especially in ocean-going shipping). Themes covered in my research include government-business relations, neo-colonialism, gentlemanly capitalism, intra-Asian trade and globalisation.

I am co-director of the Centre for Port and Maritime History, a joint enterprise between Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool and Merseyside Maritime Museum. With PNB Research Institute, I recently published the corporate biography of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (Malaysia's National Equity Corporation) which can be ordered from here:

Hardcover: https://www.mphonline.com/en/productdetails/books/business-and-management/9789674154967
Softcover: https://www.mphonline.com/en/productdetails/books/business-and-management/9789674154912

With Prof. Shakila Yacob of Universiti Malaya, I am currently working on a monograph on UK investment and Malaysia's New Economic Policy in the 1970s and 1980s. Simultaneously, I am researching for a full-length monograph study of Liverpool's shipping interests and decolonisation in the twentieth century, which combines my interests in local and global history.

Two recently published edited collections stress the Southeast Asian and global shipping dimensions to my research:

Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era: Contexts, Companies, Connections (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) (edited with Niels P. Petersson and Stig Tenold) [available Open Access here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-26002-6]

Singapore - Two Hundred Years of the Lion City (Routledge, 2019) (edited with Anthony Webster) [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351020466]

Journal article

White NJ. 2022. Decolonisation, Diversification and Decline: Liverpool Shipping and the End of Empire Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 171 :105-130 DOI Publisher Url Public Url

White NJ, Barwise JM, Yacob S. 2019. Economic Opportunity and Strategic Dilemma in Colonial Development: Britain, Japan and Malaya’s Iron Ore, 1920s to 1950s International History Review, DOI Publisher Url Public Url

White N. 2019. Ungentlemanly Capitalism: John Hay and Malaya, 1904-1964 Management and Organizational History, 14 :98-122 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url

Clampin DJ, White NJ. 2017. ‘Is it essential that a steamship company’s posters must have a ship?’ The shortcomings of British shipping posters c.1840 to c.1970 Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 9 :386-424 DOI Publisher Url Public Url

White NJ. 2017. The Settlement of Decolonization and Post-Colonial Economic Development Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 173 :208-241 DOI Author Url Publisher Url Public Url

White N. 2013. 'Ferry Off the Mersey': the business and impact of decolonization in Liverpool History, 96 :188-204

White NJ. 2012. Surviving Sukarno: British Business in Post-Colonial Indonesia, 1950-1967 MODERN ASIAN STUDIES, 46 :1277-1315 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2012. The Ocean Group and Confrontation with Indonesia Bulletin of the Liverpool Nautical Research Society, 2 :20-26

White NJ. 2011. 'Ferry off the Mersey': The Business and the Impact of Decolonization in Liverpool History, 96 :188-204 DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2011. Reconstructing Europe through Rejuvenating Empire: the British, French, and Dutch Experiences Compared PAST & PRESENT, :211-236 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

Yacob S, White NJ. 2010. The 'Unfinished Business' of Malaysia's Decolonisation: The Origins of the Guthrie 'Dawn Raid' MODERN ASIAN STUDIES, 44 :919-960 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2010. The end of the British Empire New Perspective on Modern History, 1 :13-16

White NJ. 2008. THE LIMITS OF LATE-COLONIAL INTERVENTION Labour policy and the development of trade unions in 1950s Malaya INDONESIA AND THE MALAY WORLD, 36 :429-449 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2005. Review Article: Malaysia. British Documents on the end of empire, Series B, Volume 8 ASEASUK News, :8-12

White NJ. 2004. The beginnings of crony capitalism: Business, politics and economic development in Malaysia, c. 1955-70 MODERN ASIAN STUDIES, 38 :389-417 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2004. The state and economic development in twentieth-century Malaysia KIU Journal of Economics & Business Studies, :141-160

White NJ. 2003. The Survival, Revival and Decline of British Economic Influence in Malaysia, 1957-70 Twentieth Century British History, 14 :222-242 DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2000. The business and the politics of decolonization: the British experience in the twentieth century ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 53 :544-564 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2000. British business groups and the early years of Malayan/Malaysian independence, 1957-65 Asia Pacific Business Review, 7 :155-176 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 1998. Britain and the return of Japanese economic interests to South East Asia after the Second World War South East Asia Research, 6 :281-308

White NJ. 1998. Capitalism and counter-insurgency? Business and government in the Malayan emergency, 1948-57 MODERN ASIAN STUDIES, 32 :149-177 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 1997. The frustrations of development: British business and the late colonial state in Malaga, 1945-57 JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES, 28 :103-& DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 1994. Government and Business Divided: Malaya, 1945–57 The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 22 :251-274 DOI Publisher Url

Book review

White N. 2021. Outsourcing Empire: How Company-States Made the Modern World By Andrew Phillips and J.C. Sharman Michigan War Studies Review, Publisher Url

White N. 2021. World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation. By Gregg Huff. Cambridge University Press. 2020 History, DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2020. Review of 'Ang Cheng Guan. Southeast Asia After the Cold War: A Contemporary History. Singapore: NUS Press, 2019. ISBN: 9789813250789 (paper, $30.00)'. H-Diplo, Publisher Url Public Url

White N. 2020. Planting Empire, Cultivating Subjects: British Malaya, 1786-1941. By Lynn Hollen Lees. Cambridge University Press. 2017. xvii + 359pp. £90.00. History, 105 :911-913 DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2020. Subversive Seas: Anticolonial Networks across the Twentieth-Century Dutch Empire. JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY HISTORY, 51 :155-156 Author Url

White N. 2020. Thackery, David, Forging a British world of trade; culture, ethnicity and market in the Empire-Commonwealth, 1880-1975 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. xv+230. 14 figs. 10 tabs. ISBN 9780198816713 Hbk £60) Economic History Review: a journal of economic and social history, 73 :597-599 DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2020. Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW, 94 :429-431 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

WHITE NJ. 2019. The Politics and Economics of Decolonization in Africa: The Failed Experiment of the Central African Federation. By Andrew Cohen. I. B. Tauris. 2017. viii + 300pp. £75.00. History, 104 :792-793 DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2019. The British End of the British Empire JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES, 58 :872-874 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2019. Cold War and Decolonisation: Australia’s Policy Towards Britain’s End of Empire in Southeast Asia, by Andrea Benvenuti Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47 :188-190 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2019. From World City to the World in One City: Liverpool through Malay Lives, by Tim Bunnell Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47 :190-191 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2018. Cities in Motion: Urban Life and Cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, 1920–1940. By Su Lin Lewis. Cambridge University Press. 2016. xii + 309pp. £80.00 History, DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2017. Trade and Empire in Early Nineteenth-Century Southeast Asia: Gillian Maclaine and his Business Network. By G. Roger Knight. Boydell. 2015. History, 102 :321-322 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2017. Malaysia's Defeat of Armed Communism: the Second Emergency, 1968–1989, by Ong Weichong Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 45 :161-163 DOI

White N. 2017. Promises and Predicaments. Trade and Entrepreneurship in Colonial and Independent Indonesia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Alicia Schrikker and Jeroen Touwen Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, :586-588 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2016. British economic development in South-East Asia, 1880-1939, vol. 1: Agriculture, vol. 2: Mining, trade & industry, vol. 3: The building blocks of development: governance, transport and communications, and human and financial capital ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 69 :719-721 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2015. Malaysia@50: Economic Development, Distribution, Disparities BUSINESS HISTORY REVIEW, 89 :399-401 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2015. Martin Thomas. Fight or Flight: Britain, France, and their Roads from Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-19-969827-1 (hardback, £25.00). H-Diplo, XVI Publisher Url Public Url

White NJ. 2015. The New Economic Policy in Malaysia: Affirmative action, ethnic inequalities and social justice JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES, 46 :155-158 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2014. Taxing colonial Africa: the political economy of British imperialism ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 67 :871-872 Author Url

White NJ. 2010. Japanese shipping and shipbuilding in the twentieth century: the writings of Peter N. Davies BUSINESS HISTORY, 52 :1192-1193 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2009. The business, life and letters of Frederick Cornes: aspects of the evolution of commerce in modern Japan, 1861-1910 BUSINESS HISTORY, 51 :630-631 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2008. Britain's Declining Empire: The Road to Decolonisation, 1918-1968. JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY, 80 :929-930 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2008. Copper empire: mining and the colonial state in Northern Rhodesia, c.1930-64 ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 61 :758-759 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2008. Managing British colonial and post-colonial development: the crown agents, 1914-1974 ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 61 :509-510 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2006. Britannia's Empire: Making a British World JOURNAL OF GLOBAL HISTORY, 1 :152-152 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 2002. The conservative government and the end of empire, 1957-1964, 2 parts ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 55 :196-197 Author Url

White NJ. 2000. The Oxford history of the British empire, IV: the twentieth century ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 53 :835-836 Author Url

White NJ. 2000. Japan and Singapore in the world economy: Japan's economic advance into Singapore, 1870-1965 ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 53 :398-399 Author Url

White NJ. 2000. The end of empire and the making of Malaya COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 38 :117-119 Author Url

White NJ. 1999. Britain, Southeast Asia and the onset of the Cold War, 1945-1950 COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 37 :140-142 Author Url

White NJ. 1999. Capital and entrepreneurship in South-east Asia. JOURNAL OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES, 30 :156-158 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White NJ. 1999. Capitalism and nationalism at the end of empire: state and business in decolonizing Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, 1945-1963 ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW, 52 :193-194 Author Url

White NJ. 1998. Democracy and authoritarianism in Indonesia and Malaysia COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 36 :114-116 Author Url

White NJ. 1998. Malaysia's political economy: Politics, patronage and profits COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 36 :114-116 Author Url

White NJ. 1998. The politics of open economies: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 36 :114-116 Author Url

White NJ. 1997. Political oppositions in industrialising Asia - Rodan,G JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 35 :147-147 Author Url

White NJ. 1997. Political legitimacy in Southeast Asia: The quest for moral authority - Alagappa,M JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 35 :130-131 Author Url

White NJ. 1996. British relations with the Malay rulers from decentralization to Malayan independence, 1930-1957 - Smith,SC JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 34 :258-259 Author Url

White NJ. 1996. Malaya .1. The Malayan union experiment, 1942-1948 .2. The communist insurrection, 1948-1953 .3. The alliance route to independence, 1953-1957 - Stockwell,AJ JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 34 :135-137 Author Url

White NJ. 1996. Violence and the dream people: The Orang Asli in the Mayalan emergency, 1948-1960 - Leary,JD JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 34 :137-138 Author Url

WHITE NJ. 1995. INVENTION OF POLITICS IN COLONIAL MALAYA - CONTESTING NATIONALISM AND THE EXPANSION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE - MILNER,A JOURNAL OF COMMONWEALTH & COMPARATIVE POLITICS, 33 :430-432 Author Url

White N. Matthew Jones, Conflict and confrontation in South East Asia, 1961-1965: Britain, the United States, Indonesia and the creation of Malaysia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002 Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 159 :448-449

White N. Malaysia's Defeat of Armed Communism: the Second Emergency, 1968–1989 edited by Ong Weichong London and New York, Routledge, 2015 xvii + 204 pp., ISBN: 978-0-415-82088-2 (Hardback, £95) DOI Publisher Url

Internet publication

White N. 2021. Imperial icons to Malaysian flagships: The fall of British business in Malaysia Publisher Url

Other

White NJ. 2021. The William J. Pape Memorial Lecture: Shipping and Globalisation in the Post-World War Two Era (with special reference to containerisation and decolonisation) Bulletin of the Liverpool Nautical Research Society, 64 Publisher Url Public Url

Chapters

White N. 2019. The economics of Singapore's exit from Malaysia Webster A, White NJ. Singapore - Two Hundred Years of the Lion City :96-116 Routledge

White N, Webster A. 2019. Introduction: Situating Singapore's Success Webster A, White NJ. Singapore - Two Hundred Years of the Lion City :1-11 Routlege 9781138496828

White N, Petersson NP, Tenold S. 2019. Conclusion Petersson NP, Tenold S, White NJ. Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era :249-272 Palgrave Macmillan 9783030260019 DOI

White NJ. 2019. Thinking Outside 'The Box': Decolonization and Containerization Petersson NP, Tenold S, White NJ. Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era: Contexts, Companies, Connections :67-98 Palgrave Macmillan

White N, Petersson NP, Tenold S. 2019. Introduction Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era: Contexts, Companies, Connections :1-5 Palgrave Macmillan DOI

White N. 2019. Britain's role in Singapore's exit from Malaysia Koh T, Wightman S. 200 Years of Singapore and the United Kingdom :163-170 Straits Times Press Pte LTd. Singapore 978-981-48-2717-1

White N. 2018. Imperial Business Interests, Decolonization and Post-Colonial Diversification The Oxford Handbook of the Ends of Empire :639-661 Oxford University Press. Oxford 9780198713197 DOI

White N, Evans C. 2015. Holding Back the Tide: Liverpool Shipping, Gentlemanly Capitalism and Intra-Asian Trade in the Twentieth Century Bosma U, Webster A. Commodities, Ports and Asian Maritime Trade since 1750 :218-240 Palgrave Macmillan. Houndmills, Basingstoke 9781137463913 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2014. The Trouble with Tin: Governments and Businesses in Decolonizing Malaya Ingulstad M, Perchard A, Storli E. Tin and Global Capitalism A History of the Devil's Metal, 1850-2000 :169-201 Routledge. London and New York 9780415737050 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2014. Gentlemanly capitalism and empire in the twentieth century: the forgotten case of Malaya, 1914-1965 Dumett R. Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Imperialism The New Debate on Empire :175-195 Routledge 9781317881483

White N. 2014. 'A waste of time and money?' The Colombo Plan in Malaya, Singapore and the Borneo Territories during the 1950s Akita S, Krozewski G, Watanabe S. The Transformation of the International Order of Asia Decolonization, the Cold War, and the Colombo Plan :72-90 Routledge. London and New York 9781138021242 DOI Author Url Publisher Url

White N. 2014. 'A waste of time and money?' The Colombo Plan in Malaya, Singapore and the Borneo Territories in the 1950s Watanabe S. コロンボ・プラン 戦後アジア国際秩序の形成 (The Colombo Plan and the International Order of Asia after World War II) :115-144 9784588377112

White N. 2013. 'The Business and the Politics of Decolonization: the British Experience in the Twentieth Century'' Stockwell S. The Rise and Fall of Modern Empires: Volume III: Economics and Politics :559-580 Ashgate. Farnham, Surrey 9781409432753

Akita S, White NJ. 2010. Introduction: The international order of Asia in the 1930s and 1950s: Contexts, hypotheses and scope :1-13 9780754653417

White NJ. 2010. Malaya and the sterling area reconsidered: Continuity and change in the 1950s The International Order of Asia in the 1930s and 1950s :151-176 9780754653417

White NJ. 2009. 'Complementarity', decolonization, and the Cold War: British responses to Japan's economic revival in Southeast Asia during the 1950s and 1960s The International History of East Asia, 1900-1968: Trade, Ideology and the Quest for Order :168-182 9780203862070 DOI Publisher Url

White N, Haggerty S, Webster A. 2009. Introduction: The empire in one city? The empire in one city? Liverpool's inconvenient imperial past :1-16 Manchester Univ Pr DOI Publisher Url

White NJ. 2009. Liverpool Shipping and the End of Empire: the Ocean Group in East and Southeast Asia, c. 1945-73 Haggerty S, White N, Webster A. The empire in one city? Liverpool's inconvenient imperial past :165-187 Manchester Univ Pr

White NJ. 2009. ‘Complementarity’, decolonization, and the Cold War: British responses to Japan’s economic revival in Southeast Asia during the 1950s and 1960s The International History of East Asia, 1900-1968: Trade, Ideology and the Quest for Order :168-181 9780415401241 DOI

White N. 2006. The Aftermath of Empire: British influence and the decolonisation of Southeast Asia Watanabe S. 帝国の終焉とアメリカ アジア国際秩序の再編 (The End of Empires and the United States of America: The Reconstruction of the International Order in Asia) :106-133 Yamakawa. Tokyo 9784634640191

White N. 2006. Decolonisation in the 1950s: the version according to British business The British Empire in the 1950s Retreat or Revival? :100-121 Palgrave Macmillan 9781403932266

White N. 2006. The State and Economic Development in Twentieth Century Malaysia Mason R, Ahmad AT. Reflections on Southeast Asian history since 1945 :77-93 Khairur Rahim Ahmad Hilme. Pulau Pinang 9789833391493

White N. 1999. Gentlemanly capitalism and empire in the twentieth century: the forgotten case of Malaya, 1914-1965 Gentlemanly capitalism and British imperialism the new debate on empire :175-195 Longman Pub Group

White N. 1998. The Diversification of Colonial Capitalism: British Agency Houses in Southeast Asia during the 1950s and the 1960s Cook I, Li R, Doel M, Wang Y. Dynamic Asia business, trade and economic development in Pacific Asia :12-40 Ashgate Publishing 9781859721964 DOI

White N. Imperial Business Interests, Decolonization and Post-Colonial Diversification Thomas M, Thompson A. The Oxford History of the Ends of Empire Oxford University Press. Oxford DOI Publisher Url

White N, Petersson NP, Tenold S. Conclusion Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era: Contexts, Companies, Connections DOI Publisher Url

Books (edited)

2019. Shipping and Globalization in the Post-War Era Contexts, Companies, Connections Petersson NP, Tenold S, White NJ. :i-290 Palgrave Macmillan 9783030260026 Publisher Url

2019. Singapore - Two Hundred Years of the Lion City Webster A, White NJ. Routledge 9781351020442 DOI Publisher Url

2010. The International Order of Asia in the 1930s and 1950s Akita S, White NJ. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Farnham 9780754653417

2008. The Empire in One City? Liverpool's Inconvenient Imperial Past Haggerty S, Webster A, White NJ. Manchester Univ Pr

Books (authored)

White N. 2018. In Trust: A History of PNB MPH Group Publishing Sdn Bhd. Petaling Jaya 9789674154967 Publisher Url

White N. 2014. Decolonisation: the British Experience since 1945 (2nd Edition) Routledge. Abingdon 9780415734219 DOI Publisher Url

White N. 2010. Perniagaan British di Malaysia Pascapenjajah, 1957-70: 'Neokolonialisme' atau 'Pengunduran'? ITBM 9789830684024

White NJ. 2004. British business in post-colonial Malaysia, 1957-70: Neo-colonialism or disengagement? :1-257 9780203333020 DOI Publisher Url

Barwise JM, White NJ. 2002. A Traveller's History of Southeast Asia Interlink Books 9781566564397

White NJ. 1999. Decolonisation The British Experience Since 1945 Prentice Hall

White NJ. 1996. Business, government, and the end of empire: Malaya, 1942-1957 Oxford University Press, USA

Exhibition

Horrocks C, White N, Parsons E, Stephenson V. Life on the Ocean Wave Author Url

External collaboration:

http://www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/event/life-on-the-ocean-wave-an-exhibition-of-cunard-collectibles/, Liverpool John Moores University, Culture Liverpool. 2015

Other Professional Activity:

Organised and co-delivered a programme of lectures at the Merseyside Maritime Museum as part of Liverpool's One Magnificent City events to celebrate Cunard 175.

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