Imperial Sceptics: British Critics of Empire, 1850–1920Imperial Sceptics provides a highly original analysis of the emergence of opposition to the British Empire from 1850–1920. Departing from existing accounts, which have focused upon the Boer War and the writings of John Hobson, Gregory Claeys proposes a new chronology for the contours of resistance to imperial expansion. Claeys locates the impetus for such opposition in the late 1850s with the British followers of Auguste Comte. Tracing critical strands of anti-imperial thought through to the First World War, Claeys then scrutinises the full spectrum of socialist writings from the early 1880s onwards, revealing a fundamental division over whether a new conception of 'socialist imperialism' could appeal to the electorate and satisfy economic demands. Based upon extensive archival research, and utilising rare printed sources, Imperial Sceptics will prove a major contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century political thought, shedding new light on theories of nationalism, patriotism, the state and religion. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Chapter 1 Positivist diplomacy | 47 |
from Little England to socialist commonwealth 18501920 | 124 |
civilisation utility and socialist imperialism | 235 |
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Common terms and phrases
affairs Africa amongst anti-imperialism anti-imperialist asserted Auguste Comte Beesly Blatchford BLPES Blunt Boer Britain British rule capitalist century chiefly civilisation Clarion Cobden Cobdenite colonies common Comte Comte’s condemned conflict Congreve cosmopolitan Critics defined definitive Democracy democratic different difficulty economic effective efforts Egypt English Essays Ethics European exploitation Fabian Fabian Society federation financial first foreign policy Frederic Harrison Free Trade Geddes Henry History Hobson Home Rule Hyndman idea ideal imperialist independence India industrial influence Ingram Papers insisted interest Internationalism Ireland Irish J. A. Hobson John Justice Labour Party later League Liberalism Little England Macdonald Marx moral Morris nationalist native Newcastle upon Tyne offered Oxford Patrick Geddes patriotism peace political Positivism Positivist principle Quin race Radical Religion of Humanity Richard Cobden Richard Congreve self-government Socialism Society theory thought Victor Branford Wilfrid Scawen Blunt wrote