The Empire and its Critics, 1899-1939


Book Description

The eight books reprinted in this set played an important role in defining attitudes and expectations about imperialism on the British Left in the twentieth century. They are vital in understanding the transition from the liberal anti-imperialism of the nineteenth century to the more overtly socialist critiques of the twentieth.




Empire and Imperial Ambition


Book Description

The late nineteenth century is generally thought of as a period of imperial enthusiasm and fervour, however, beneath the surface there were currents of disquiet and discontent. In this book Mira Matikkala examines the modes of thought that were described as anti-imperialist in the period 1878-1901. She argues that the common ground between the various critics of imperialism was that they all declared to represent 'true Englishness' in contrast to what they regarded as a 'distorted' imperial identity. Previous research has largely embraced the imperialist conception and definition of British imperialism as 'empire patriotism' and general 'empire pride'. This has led to a failure to understand the fact that late-Victorian anti-imperialists comprehended imperialism differently. They drew a clear distinction between the empire and imperialism, the empire signifying mainly emigration, colonisation, and the spontaneous spread of English liberal values in the form of the settler empire; whereas imperialism, as British authoritarian rule in the dependencies, was regarded as the negation of the same liberal spirit which the colonies propounded. Unlike colonisation, imperialism was seen as a new departure in British politics, representing anti-constitutionalism, 'distorted' imperial patriotism, militarism, aggression, and irrational jingoism. In contrast to these imperialist manifestations the anti-imperialists emphasised 'the long line from 1688': liberty and constitutional rights in the form of 'industry and freedom at home, and peace, fair dealing, and moderation abroad'. In their view these 'traditional English values' constituted 'true' Englishness and any 'true' patriotism would be founded on them. The late-Victorian debate on imperialism can be loosely grouped into three main categories, discussed in the three main parts of the book: economy and imperial expansion; ethics and the nature of progress; and practical politics. 'Empire and the Imperial Ambition' will be a significant contribution to the fields of British intellectual history and political thought.




Africa, Empire and Fleet Street


Book Description

For decades before and after African independence, the London weekly West Africa was a well-known source of news, analysis and comment on the region, especially the (former) British territories. Jonathan Derrick, who worked on the magazine's staff in the 1960s and again in its final years before closure in 2003, here studies the earlier history of West Africa through the story of its largely forgotten editor, Albert Cartwright, from the magazine's founding in 1917 to Cartwright's retirement in 1947. Before editing West Africa, Cartwright spent twenty years in South Africa, making the headlines in 1901 when, as editor of Cape Town's South African News during the Boer War, he was jailed for a year for a war crimes allegation against Lord Kitchener. Exploring Cartwright family papers and memories, Derrick reveals the complex nature of a man who, for three decades, ran a colonial magazine but was appreciated by Africans as someone who genuinely understood them. Derrick places the story of colonial-era West Africa, which would reach its greatest heights during the independence period, within the wider landscape of British periodicals dealing with Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.




The Empire of Progress


Book Description

This much-needed study of the British Empire Exhibition reveals durable, persistent connections between empire and domestic society in Britain during the interwar years. It demonstrates that the Exhibition was a marker of how by 1924, imperial relations were increasingly likely to be shaped by forces located on the colonial periphery.




Last Outpost on the Zulu Frontiers


Book Description

Small and isolated in the Colony of Natal, Fort Napier was long treated like a temporary outpost of the expanding British Empire. Yet British troops manned this South African garrison for over seventy years. Tasked with protecting colonists, the fort became even more significant as an influence on, and reference point for, settler society. Graham Dominy's Last Outpost on the Zulu Frontier reveals the unexamined but pivotal role of Fort Napier in the peacetime public dramas of the colony. Its triumphalist colonial-themed pageantry belied colonists's worries about their own vulnerability. As Dominy shows, the cultural, political, and economic methods used by the garrison compensated for this perceived weakness. Settler elites married their daughters to soldiers to create and preserve an English-speaking oligarchy. At the same time, garrison troops formed the backbone of a consumer market that allowed colonists to form banking and property interests that consolidated their control.




The Empire and Its Critics, 1899-1939


Book Description

This set defines attitudes about imperialism on the British Left in the 20th century and is vital in understanding the transition from the liberal anti-imperialism of the 19th century to the more overtly socialist critiques of the 20th century.




Critical Zone 2


Book Description

Despite globalizing forces, whether economic, political, or cultural, there remain conspicuous differences that divide scholarly communities. How should we understand and respond to those discursive gaps among different traditions and systems of knowledge production? Critical Zone is a book series in cultural and literary studies that is concerned with current critical debates and intellectual preoccupations in the humanities. The series aims to improve understanding across cultures, traditions, discourses, and disciplines, and to produce international critical knowledge. Critical Zone is an expression of timely collaboration among scholars from Hong Kong, mainland China, the United States, and Europe, and conceived as an intellectual bridge between China and the rest of the world. The second volume of Critical Zone, as does its predecessor, consists of two parts. The first part includes original essays that deal with the concept and practice of "empire," as a collective response to the question of how imperial formations and operations, in the past and at present, should be examined in a larger context of international politics and how historical imperialism may be considered in relation to the conditions of our time. Part II includes two sets of translations of essays, first published in Chinese, about two recent debates in China: one on the canonicity of Lu Xun and the other on the problem of how to reform Peking University in the context of globalization. These two groups of translations are led by review essays that contextualize the debates.




Hobson and Imperialism


Book Description

The year 2002 sees the centenary of J. A. Hobson's Imperialism: A Study, the most influential critique of British imperial expansion ever written. P. J. Cain marks the occasion by evaluating, for the first time, Hobson's writings on imperialism from his days as a journalist in London to his death in 1940. The early chapters chart Hobson's progress from complacent imperialist in the 1880s to radical critic of empire by 1898. This is followed by an account of the origins of Imperialism and a close analysis of the text in the context of contemporary debates. Two chapters cover Hobson's later writings, showing their richness and variety, and analysing his decision to republish Imperialism in 1938. The author discusses the reception of Imperialism and its emergence as a 'classic' by the late 1930s and ends with a detailed discussion of the relevance of the arguments of Imperialism to present-day historians.




Empire and Commerce in Africa


Book Description

In this title, originally published in 1920, Leonard Woolf traces the history of economic imperialism and explores the relations of Europe and Africa since 1876. This analysis of economic imperialism helped to shape attitudes to colonialism for more than one generation of radicals and socialists, and still has the power to influence and inform today.




Middle East Historiographies


Book Description

This collection of ten essays focuses on the way major schools and individuals have narrated histories of the Middle East. The distinguished contributors explore the historiography of economic and intellectual history, nationalism, fundamentalism, colonialism, the media, slavery, and gender. In doing so, they engage with some of the most controversial issues of the twentieth century. Middle Eastern studies today cover a rich and varied terrain, yet the study of the profession itself has been relatively neglected. There is, however, an ever-present need to examine what the research has chosen to include and exclude and to become more consciously aware of shifts in research approaches and methods. This collection illuminates the evolving state of the art and suggests new directions for further research.