The Absent-Minded Imperialists

Porter, Bernard

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199299591.001.0001

Cited by 49 publications

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“…As Bernard Porter has contended, historians must avoid merely stacking up examples of imperial ephemera over a long period of time and different locations and thence making sparsely evidenced assumptions that imperialism was rife or that a diverse population, differentiated by class, gender, religion, experiences and interests, necessarily absorbed imperialistic opinions from the assorted material it was exposed to. These cautionary arguments, like Porter's stress on contextual factors, 9 have influenced historians like Andrew Thompson and Simon Potter to realise the huge difficulties in assessing exactly how empire was received and perceived. Nevertheless, Thompson in particular has amassed compelling evidence of multifarious subtle and complex imperial (although not necessarily imperialistic), influences in the nineteenth century, operating in different ways on all levels of society.…”

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Education, empire and social change in nineteenth century England

Watts

2009

Paedagogica Historica

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This article discusses the effects of imperialism on British (or chiefly English) social life and education in the nineteenth century rather than examining the effects on the colonised as is usually done. It is shown that the nineteenth century was infused with different visual and written images which helped develop attitudes and ideas which influenced social change in Britain. The "imperial gaze" demonstrated a fascination with the unknown and exotic; a scientific curiosity to discover, collect, classify and explain; an economic desire to find and exploit; and mixed motivations from religious, humanitarian and nationalistic impulses to convert, "civilise" and dominate. In different ways and at different levels this entailed a wish to "know" and an urge to pass on presumed "truths" that interlocked imperial influences into educational enterprise, although not necessarily within formal schooling. As the century progressed, events within the expanding empire, combining with scientific theories, helped to develop cultural arrogance, dominated by ideas of white, Western superiority. Yet there was no homogenous, uncontested discourse. As post-imperial debates suggest, chronological shifts, differing gender and class responses are significant. Effects could be paradoxical as those of imperial opportunities and rhetoric were on women's lives. Examples from other imperial nations, especially France and the Netherlands, indicate parallel imperial, sometimes imperialistic, concerns and interests and varying consequences, but in different contexts. The paper ends with some suggestions on how the difficulties of analysing the effects of empire on social change and education could be addressed within history of education.The interrelationship of education and empire is usually explored through the effects on the colonised. In contrast, this paper will examine briefly how influences of empire worked through informal educational activities and affected nineteenth century social change in Britain (or rather England, since Wales, Scotland and Ireland are not specifically addressed). Some brief comparisons will be made with some other imperial nations of the period and the possibilities of taking such research further discussed.British, like European history generally, was long depicted as advancing economically and socially because of internal qualities rather than through engaging with other cultures. More recent scholarship, for example, postcolonial and post-Kuhnian studies, has demonstrated the inadequacies of such assumptions. "Postcolonialism", a critical and inclusive discursive space, has stimulated historians to examine how different societies have always inter-acted, thus probing how European societies have *

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Education, empire and social change in nineteenth century England

Watts

2009

Paedagogica Historica

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“…15 Rather than provide another critique of these theories -as has been done elsewhere 16 -this paper proposes to remind readers of a solid model of empire that is infrequently cited, but of real use when analysing specific local examples of imperial expansion and consolidation. John Darwin's notion of 'imperial bridgeheads', originally published in The English Historical Review in 1997 17 , proposes that descriptions of British imperial expansion should acknowledge the "pluralism of British society"; the "diversity of British interests at work in the periphery"; and pay "careful attention to the international constraints which shaped mid-as well as late Victorian expansion": As Gallagher and Robinson rightly insisted, it was the energy of private British interests -settler, commercial, missionary amongst others -which supplied much of the dynamic behind Victorian expansion (617).…”

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The Trans‐Tasman Cable, the Australasian Bridgehead and Imperial History

Smithies

2008

History Compass

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We are running a race with Time; we outstrip the sun, with the round world for the race-course. 1 The implementation of an imperial telegraph network over the course of the late nineteenth century caused a considerable amount of ink to be spilled, in praise, in fear and in confusion. By 1876, with the completion of the trans-Tasman cable between Australia and New Zealand, the British government could communicate with all of its major colonies by electric telegraph. As long as the lines remained intact (this was by no means a certainty), a message could be conveyed from London to Wellington, New Zealand, via the "thunderbolts of Jove". 2 The rapid contraction of time and space that this entailed was much commented upon by contemporaries, who marvelled at the reduction in communication time between England and her antipodes from 3-4 months to a matter of hours. As the most distant colony in the empire, New Zealanders took up the new technology with alacrity: by 1904 New Zealand telegraph traffic ran at twice the rate of any other country in the world, and 5 times the rate in the United States. 3 Although the bulk of these messages merely circuited throughout New Zealand and wider Australasia, it is quite clear that the telegraph was quickly identified as a useful tool of colonisation and nation building.Of course, the growth of the nineteenth century telegraph network captivated people worldwide. It came to symbolise the new power over nature represented by technological modernity. One commentator referred to the wires as "the nerves of the earth" 4 and early biologists like Emil DuBois-Reymond (1818-1896) used the metaphor of telegraph systems to formulate his theory of the human nervous system. 5

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“…4 Latterly, Bernard Porter has also identified what he calls the 'prefects' as the group for whom empire had the most significance and who were most committed to its survival. 5 All these historians have taken something from the toolbox of those who might be called the 'classical' theorists of imperialism who flourished in Europe and America in the first part of the twentieth century. Cain and Hopkins' work is the most closely identified with classical writings including those of Joseph Schumpeter, J.…”

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Capitalism, Aristocracy and Empire: Some ‘Classical’ Theories of Imperialism Revisited

Cain¹

2007

The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History

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The Absent-Minded Imperialists

Cited by 49 publications

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Education, empire and social change in nineteenth century England

Education, empire and social change in nineteenth century England

The Trans‐Tasman Cable, the Australasian Bridgehead and Imperial History

Capitalism, Aristocracy and Empire: Some ‘Classical’ Theories of Imperialism Revisited

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