The Idea of Greater Britain

Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-691-15116-8
Verlag: Princeton University Press

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 512 g

During the tumultuous closing decades of the nineteenth century, as the prospect of democracy loomed and as intensified global economic and strategic competition reshaped the political imagination, British thinkers grappled with the question of how best to organize the empire. Many found an answer to the anxieties of the age in the idea of Greater Britain, a union of the United Kingdom and its settler colonies in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and southern Africa. In The Idea of Greater Britain, Duncan Bell analyzes this fertile yet neglected debate, examining how a wide range of thinkers conceived of this vast "Anglo-Saxon" political community. Their proposals ranged from the fantastically ambitious--creating a globe-spanning nation-state--to the practical and mundane--reinforcing existing ties between the colonies and Britain. But all of these ideas were motivated by the disquiet generated by democracy, by challenges to British global supremacy, and by new possibilities for global cooperation and communication that anticipated today's globalization debates. Exploring attitudes toward the state, race, space, nationality, and empire, as well as highlighting the vital theoretical functions played by visions of Greece, Rome, and the United States, Bell illuminates important aspects of late-Victorian political thought and intellectual life.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bell, Duncan

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Chapter 1: Introduction: Building Greater Britain 1
The Boundaries of Imperial Discourse: Imagining Greater Britain 3
Greater Britain and Imperial Federation: Variations on a Theme 12
Empire and Ideology 20
Outline of the Book 25
Chapter 2: Global Competition and Democracy 31
Balances of Power: Global Threats and Imperial Responses 35
Democracy and the Moral Economy of Empire 40
Emigration and the Social Question 46
Radical Visions of Greater Britain 55
Chapter 3: Time, Space, Empire 63
"The Eternal Law": Empire and the Vicissitudes of Distance 66
Nature in Flux, c. 1830-1870 74
Imperial Political Thought in the Age of Scientific Utopianism, c. 1870-1900 81
Remaking the Global Political Imagination 89
Chapter 4: Empire, Nation, State 92
The Turn to Federalism 93
Statehood and Empire 98
J. R. Seeley and the "World-State" 108
Race and Nation 113
Chapter 5: The Politics of the Constitution 120
The Virtues of Vagueness 122
Imperial Patriotism and the Constitution 128
Civic Imperialism 137
J. A. Froude and the "Commonwealth of Oceana" 143
Chapter 6: The Apostle of Unity 150
The Love of Humanity: Toward a New "Political Religion" 152
The Political Theology of Nationalist Cosmopolitanism 158
The Darkening of an English Mind 164
On the Necessity of Imperial Federation 168
The Ambiguities of Unity: India and Ireland 171
Chapter 7: The Prophet of Righteousness 179
Colonial Emancipation and the "Glorious Future" of the Anglo-Saxon Race 181
Empire and Character 188
Religion and Liberty 193
India, Ireland, and the Necessity of Despotism 202
Chapter 8: From Ancient to Modern 207
The Functions of the Ancients 210
The End of Empire: Two Models 217
On Novelty 226
Back to the Future 229
Chapter 9: Envisioning America 231
The Model of the Future: America as Template 235
Size Matters: America as Competitor 238
Peace and Justice: The Benefits of Hegemony 247
Through a Glass, Darkly: America as Lesson 250
America, Empire, and Racial Unity 254
Chapter 10: Conclusion: Lineages of Greater Britain 260
Global Consciousness and the Imperial Imagination 260
Reverberations: Some Afterlives of Greater Britain 266
Select Bibliography 273
Index 313

Über Autor(innen)

Bell, Duncan
Duncan Bell is a university lecturer in international relations at the Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Christ's College. He is the editor of "Memory, Trauma, and World Politics" and "Victorian Visions of Global Order".