The Location of Culture (Routledge Classics)

Book Description

Terry Eagleton once wrote in the Guardian, 'Few post-colonial writers can rival Homi Bhabha in his exhilarated sense of alternative possibilities'. In rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity, one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. A scholar who writes and teaches about South Asian literature and contemporary art with incredible virtuosity, he discusses writers as diverse as Morrison, Gordimer, and Conrad. In The Location of Culture, Bhabha uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.

Customer Reviews:

Even The Little People Are Free .......2007-06-04

Bhabha writes dense, pretentious prose, which is commonplace now among the humanists who feel inferior to scientists, but he does have something to say. This little book does two things: it is in the end a celebration of literature (and not of theory for its own sake) and it defends the little brown people, such as Indians, against the claim of others, such as Edward Said, that whites oppressed them by denying them a voice. Bhabha argues in effect that the oppression created a new voice that subverted the oppressors. Bhabha has little patience for the sob-sister school of academic discourse which seeks out victims of racism. This is a sustained critique of liberal academic bad faith.

The enunciatory present.......2006-02-16

In The Location of Culture, Bhabha argues for a fundamental realignment of the methodology of cultural analysis away from ontology toward the "performative" and "enunciatory present" (p.178). Such a shift, he claims, provides a basis for the negotiation of cultural difference rather than its automatic repression or negation in the face of irreconcilable oppositions. Bhabha's emphasis on the enunciative production of meaning places the emphasis of critical inquiry on issues of representation or signification, thereby producing "a temporality that makes it possible to conceive of the articulation of antagonistic or contradictory elements" (p.25).

This argument represents a critical attack on the Western production of binary oppositions, traditionally defined in terms of centre and margin, civilised and savage, enlightened and ignorant. Bhabha questions the easy recourse to consolidated dualisms by repudiating fixed and authentic centres of truth, suggesting that cultures interact, transgress and transform each other in a much more complex manner than typical binary oppositions allow.

According to him, hybridity and linguistic multivocality have the potential to intervene and dislocate the process of domination through the re-interpretation and re-deployment of received discourse, thus re-focusing critical attention towards the "agonistic space" (181) which exists on the borders of difference, along the edges of alterity, where cultures meet. Bhabha celebrates cultural heterogeneity and the subversive effects of hybridisation.

I'd rather stick my hand in a blender than read this again.......2004-05-26

The fact that this book is influential is generally beyond argument. What astonishes me, however, is that so many people had the endurance to sit through the horrific writing; the author's style is obnoxious in the extreme. The first paragraph, for example, notes that the question of culture is the "trope of our times," characterized by "a tenebrous sense of survival." These concepts are not mind-bending. An everday, or as Homi would say, "colloquial" vocabularly would sufficiently articulate his thesis, yet he seems hellbent on packing his work with obscure language like he needs show off or prove something. Again, his ideas are influential, but he makes reading them as painful as possible.

Mimicry, Mockery, Menace.......2003-01-21

Ambivalence is a key term in Bhabha's Location of Culture. Accordingly, Bhabha's prose might be considered poetry or gibberish, but certainly not scholarship. There is no thesis, no argument, no evidence. That is not to say that Bhabha wouldn't be capable of such writing. Every once in a while, the reader can catch a glimpse of Bhabha's Other: the lucid thinker of post-colonialism. In order to compensate for the lack of clarity, structure and, yes, basic congruity between subjects, verbs and objects, Bhabha enacts the thoughts he fails to express. Indeed, his text is a performance of itself. Take, for instance, his chapter on mimicry. Whatever intelligent thoughts other scholars have derived from this concept, you will not find them in Bhabha's book. But he indeed shows you what he means, as he goes through the motions of scholarship. First, he makes a number of general statements that sound like a thesis. Then he puts a in a few convoluted sentence structures that make no sense-grammatically or otherwise. And finally he slams in a quote or two to prove a point-what point doesn't matter, for he did not make one in the first place. As a reader you will have to decide whether his work is a mimicry (in his definition "almost but not quite") of scholarship or its menace (according to Bhabha, 'not at all but still a little'). About one thing, though, he leaves no ambivalence: he "quite simply mocks its power to be a model." Harvard volunteered to be the evidence.

Even though this is one of the most highly regarded ..........2003-01-11

...theory books of the 1990s, its fame and reputation seem overblown. None of the other reviews posted here have really stated what Bhabha tries to accomplish in "The Location of Culture," so I'll give it a crack, even though I'm no expert on postcolonial theory.

To save you all some time, many of Bhabha's key points are made in the first two pages of his book. For instance: "In-between spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood--singular or communal--that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of defining the idea of society" (p. 1-2). Elsewhere, in-betweenness is easily the key concept in the book, as well as the notion of HYBRIDITY. The reason the modernist model of Colonialism is doomed to fail is not only because it needs the Other (the colonized) to validate its own supremacy (and to fulfill its desires), but also because it engages in what Bhabha refers to as "contra-modernity": modernity in "colonial conditions where its imposition is itself the denial of historical freedom, civic autonomy and the 'ethical' choice of refashioning" (p. 241). Bhabha finds that by examining the borderlines between Colonial power and Colonial oppression, a truer history of global populations can be obtained. In one of the finer passages in the book, Bhabha examines a scene from Salman Rushdie's controversial 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" and descibes how the postcolonial body--shaped by an outside nationalist culture--is representative of the colonizer, yet the colonizers "can never let the national history look at itself narcissistically in the eye" (p. 168).

Now let me preface my explanation by saying this is what I THINK Bhabha is getting at. It's not that his prose is "confusing," as other reviewers have stated here--although it is exceedingly "academic" (and there is nothing wrong with that, in and of itself)--but it is mired in the theoryspeak of the West that Bhabha seems so insistent upon de-centralizing. Bhabha uses the theories of the European male elite with so much blind faith that it easily undermines much of what he is trying to accomplish. Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Derrida are all over this book. These "founders of discourse" (as Foucault called Marx and Freud--and could posthumously call himself given his exhaltation in the academy after his death in 1984) represent an alternate (i.e. "left") critical practice, yet completely dominate Western discussions of theory in literary circles. Is not Bhabha, an Indian scholar, colonized by these minds?

Also, Bhabha's insistence upon in-betweenness at times really seems to undermine his (apparent) intentions. He seems, on the one hand, to claim that it is precisely through in-betweenness that the oppressors dominate the oppressed. Yet, it also seems that this in-betweenness gives the oppressed the opportunity to resist the oppressors. We seem to be back at step zero. Is anything really being said here?

He should have followed better the example of Frantz Fanon, who appears early and often as a primary source in "The Location of Culture." Fanon was surely no stranger to the Western tradition, but was able to write in a critical-poetical-personal style that was accessible to non-academics, a style that had real fire. Bhabha, with all his emphasis on the work of postcolonial theory--which, in his words, seeks to "revise those nationalist or 'nativist' pedagogies that set up the relation of Third World and First World in a binary structure of opposition" (p. 173)--continually relies on the concept of "doubling" (likely a Lacanian theory) as well as his notion of in-betweenness (or liminality, as he calls it) in such a manner that no distinct point of view really emerges. The theoryspeak seems to subsume any important observations he might be willing to make.

Book Description

Revered or reviled, Gertrude Bell was a commanding figure: scholar, linguist, archaeologist, traveler and "Orientalist". Belonging to the tradition of the great British Middle East enthusiasts of the early twentieth century, she explored the Ottoman Empire during and after World War I and was (alongside T.E. Lawrence) hugely instrumental in the post-war reconfiguration of the Arab states in the Middle East. Using previously unseen sources, including Gertrude Bell's own diaries and letters, Liora Lukitz provides a deeper political and personal biography of this influential character and the tragedy, vulnerability and frustration that were key to her quest both for a British-dominated Middle East and relief from her troubled romantic life.

Customer Reviews:

"Our Eastern Affairs are Complex Beyond All Words".......2006-07-18

History is useful not only for revealing the past, but also in foreshadowing the future. In the case of Iraq, this is no small matter. This book by Liora Likutz, a scholar who is currently at the Truman Institute in Jerusalem, describes the making of modern Iraq through the life of one the two key protagonists who drew its boundaries on the map following World War I. Those two individuals were T.E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell. While the broad outline of Lawrence's life and exploits in the Middle East are well known to many, Gertrude Bell remains more of a mystery. This book attempts to pull back that veil. Anyone who seeks to understand the currents and tides swirling underneath modern Iraq needs to understand how this country came to be, and the complex life of Gertrude Bell is a good place to start.

Gertrude Bell was born on 14 July (ironically, the Baath Party National Holiday) in 1868 to a wealthy Victorian family. She attended Queen's College in London and later studied history at Oxford. Exceptionally bright, she not only excelled at academics but also proved herself to be a durable athlete who could compete with the boys. Following school, Gertrude met a young man named Henry Cadogan when she was 24 and desired to marry him. But her parents disapproved of this union because Cadogan was a "poor diplomat" not from a well-to-do family. Although the two shared common interests and might have made a happy couple, Gertrude - ever the dutiful daughter -shunned this relationship. She instead went to Bombay, India in 1902 and saw firsthand how Lord Curzon's rigid policies of not appointing Indians to his governing committees created opposition to British rule there. She carried this lesson with her. Britain's interest in India eventually brought Gertrude to Mespotamia, where she had an unconsummated affair with a British officer named Dick Doughty-Wylie. Gertrude did not understand Doughty-Wylie's devotion to his wife however, and perhaps persisted in this stillborn relationship because it did not impinge on her intellectual interests or her freedom. Doughty-Wylie, promoted to LtCol by 1916, was killed at Gallipoli in an attack on the Sidd-al-Barh castle for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Gertrude probably never completely recovered.

The British interest in Basra and concern over it falling into Turkish hands led the British to mount an expedition to Baghdad in 1916. In the climax to this disastrous campaign, 17,600 colonial troops ended up surrendering at Al Kut and were marched into enemy captivity. Later revelations of the Sykes-Picot Agreement (the secret agreement between the British and French to carve up the post-war Middle East) and the important question of what would happen to Mosul after the war convinced British administrators to stay involved in Iraq for years to come. And Gertrude intended to play a key role in what would happen in this Cradle of Civilization.

Gertrude quickly discovered that the population of Mesopotamia wanted to manage their own affairs, even if less competently than the British. This caused her to clash with other administrators. She also disagreed with them over the shape of the future Iraq: while some thought it would be impossible to unite the disparate populations of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul, Bell envisioned an independent and unified Iraq that encompassed these key population centers. She thought Wilson's "rigidity" (like Curzon's earlier) had caused the July 1920 rebellion to spread from the south of the country to the west, ultimately costing hundreds of British lives and thousands of Arab lives.

Many tribes still resisted a Sunni-led government in Baghdad and instead preferred an Islamic government based out of Najaf and Karbala. Churchill, now Secretary of State for the colonies, sought to mobilize public opinion to convince the British it was worth their treasure to maintain presence in Iraq for a prolonged period. Britain would maintain control over the country primarily with its air force (similar to the no-fly zones between Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom) rather than committing large numbers of ground troops.

King Faysal I was finally coronated as King of Iraq on 23 August 1921. Gertrude developed a good relationship with him and was enamored of her role in "making Kings and inventing kingdoms." The Kurds still longed for self-rule however, and Faysal's weak governmental institutions depended upon British arms to give his rule sanction. By 1923, after much diplomatic wrangling, modern Iraq had taken shape. Mosul would stay within Iraq despite the Kurds' insistence on independence because: 1) it could not survive economically without the rest of Iraq, 2) it was not a Turkish province - nor it could it be allowed to become one, and 3) no oil concessions could be given to foreign oil companies. Oil was the driving strategic interest for Britain keeping its foot firmly planted in Iraq.

Gertrude saw the Sunni tribal leaders as the natural elites and thus the future rulers. As Iraq hardened into the form it would maintain for the remainder of the 20th Century and into the 21st, Gertrude's role in politics diminished and she became totally absorbed in her work at the Baghdad Museum. Alone and depressed yet unable to break away from the work she had anchored herself to for so much of her life, Gertrude took her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills in July 1926. She was buried on 12 July in Baghdad.

Likutz has produced a fine book that will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about Gertrude Bell and the making of modern Iraq. It is a brisk read, yet very impressively researched, relying primarily on Gertrude Bell's own letters. My only criticism of this book is that it does not contain any maps. These would have been very helpful in explaining the military campaign into Mesopotamia and surrender at Al Kut, the importance of Iraq vis-à-vis Britain's India policy, and the drawing of the post-war boundaries that Gertrude Bell played such a large role in. Still, the books' strengths outweigh this one weakness, and if you are interested in Iraq, you will not be disappointed.

Understanding Irak.......2006-02-10

Facinating and exciting point of view of Irak through Gertrude Bell's life.
Must be read if you want to understand what is happening now in this country.

Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power

Average customer rating:

A good place to start, but not end
A History of the Lion's Den
What Started out as Survival Mode, Turned into Empire
Imperialist who is not completely wrong
Like Imperialism itself, this book is Fun...but Wrong

Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power
Niall Ferguson
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0465023282
Release Date: 2003-04-01

Amazon.com

At its peak in the nineteenth century, the British Empire was the largest empire ever known, governing roughly a quarter of the world's population. In Empire, Niall Ferguson explains how "an archipelago of rainy islands... came to rule the world," and examines the costs and consequences, both good and bad, of British imperialism. Though the book's breadth is impressive, it is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the British Empire; rather, Ferguson seeks to glean lessons from this history for future, or present, empires--namely America. Pointing out that the U.S. is both a product of the British Empire as well as an heir to it, he asks whether America--an "empire in denial"--should "seek to shed or to shoulder the imperial load it has inherited." As he points out in this fascinating book, there is compelling evidence for both.

Observing that "the difficulty with the achievements of empire is that they are much more likely to be taken for granted than the sins of empire," Ferguson stresses that the British did do much good for humanity in their quest for domination: promotion of the free movement of goods, capital, and labor and a common rule of law and governance chief among them. "The question is not whether British imperialism was without blemish. It was not. The question is whether there could have been a less bloody path to modernity," he writes. The challenge for the U.S., he argues, is for it to use its undisputed power as a force for positive change in the world and not to fall into some of the same traps as the British before them.

Covering a wide range of topics, including the rise of consumerism (initially fueled by a desire for coffee, tea, tobacco, and sugar), the biggest mass migration in history (20 million emigrants between the early 1600s and the 1950s), the impact of missionaries, the triumph of capitalism, the spread of the English language, and globalization, this is a brilliant synthesis of various topics and an extremely entertaining read. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

A grand narrative history of the world's first experiment in globalization, with lessons for an ever-expanding American Empire--from England's most talented young historian.

The British Empire was the largest in all history, its reach the nearest thing to world domination ever achieved. By the eve of the Second World War, over a fifth of the world's land surface and nearly a quarter of the world's population were under some form of British rule. Yet for today's generation, the British Empire has come to stand for nothing more than a lost Victorian past--one so remote that it has ceased even to be a target for satire. The time is ripe for a reappraisal.

In this major new work of synthesis and revision, Niall Ferguson argues that the British Empire should be regarded not merely as vanished Victoriana but as the very cradle of modernity. Nearly all the key features of the twenty-first-century world can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth--economic globalization, the communications revolution, the racial make-up of North America, the notion of humanitarianism, the nature of democracy. Displaying the originality and rigor that have made him the brightest light among British historians, Ferguson shows that far from being a subject for nostalgia, the story of the Empire is pregnant with lessons for the world today--in particular for the United States as it stands on the brink of a new kind of imperial power based once again on economic and military supremacy.

Customer Reviews:

A good place to start, but not end.......2007-09-27

Ferguson's EMPIRE is well-written, like all of his work. It is not a comprehensive look at the details of expansion and conquest--there are other books readily available for that--but instead looks at the empire as a process. Thus, he focuses on key figures and locations, primarily India and Africa. One gets a good sense of who was behind the imperial drive, and what the drive for empire was all about. It is, however, a little bit too "pro-Empire." To be sure, Ferguson acknowledges that imperialism had its nasty side (especially against the Boers). However, we don't get much of the violence and cruelty that characterized British expansion and conquest, which very much should have been included. Also, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland are barely touched on. Its still worth the read for sure, but must be used as a framework around which much else should be read.

A History of the Lion's Den.......2007-08-18

Niall Ferguson, author of other non-fiction hits as "Pity of War", "The Cash Nexus" and 2006's "War of the World" offers a modern analysis of one of the most influential empires in history. An Englishman, Ferguson tackles the history of the British Empire in this layman's volume of 370 pages, rich with illustrations, maps, and photos stretching from empire's reluctant beginnings in the 17th century to the final collapse following WWII. The hardback edition of the book which I read had a textbook quality to it physically, more of a squared geometry, with glossy paper and text layout resemling a history textbook. However, the writing style was definitely not of a textbook. Niall has two great qualities for a history writer that endears him to this layperson - the ability to write history in a witty, conversational fashion, and a penchant for promoting alternative conclusions for historical events, often diametrically opposed to the standard ideas. For example, he rates the British leadership over India as an overall positive thing, without which India would not have quickly risen to the heights it has obtained today, in fact, it may have easily fallen victim to the Japanese empire of WWII. This contrasts with the mainstream view of the freedom movement promoted by Gandhi which eventually ended a repressive, exploitive British rule.

Before reading this book, I had scant knowledge of the history of the British Empire, besides the typical stories of American colonial resistance to British rule, and the dysfunctional relationship of ruler and ruled in Burma detailed by George Orwell in his essay "Shooting an Elephant". I came away from this book with a much more thorough understanding. At its height, it governed about 25% of the world's population and covered about 25% of the world's habitable land. All this was accomplished with a relatively small number of administrators and soldiers. Indeed, the colonial areas supplied large percentages of the Empire's soldiers for small regional conflicts and large wars with other European powers. Niall argues that this was accomplished by the relatively benign rule of the English and an increasingly loosened authoritarian grip, ending in a Commonwealth of states that survives in small form today. Whereas other modern empires, such as Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Reich and Tojo's Japan were ruled by a heavy hand and often brutal tactics, the British were more "hands off", their empire having more of a commercial orientation with occasional digressions into missionary movements and cultural assimilation.

Perhaps the most poignant point of the book was Ferguson's reasoning for the end of the British Empire - after being sapped of money and resources from the first world war, Britain was faced with a stark choice when Hitler began his campaign across Europe - agree to a peace deal with Hitler or lose the empire in a draining fight to the finish. By agreeing to keep out of Hitler's conquest of the European continent, Britain most likely could have kept her vast empire, ironically at it's largest size right when Britain was least capable of protecting it. Ferguson argues that Churchill led England on the more noble path of imperial self-sacrifice for the good of the rest of the world.
Not only did Great Britain pay perhaps the highest price for the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, she also failed to benefit substantially from the Marshall Plan and IMF/World Bank loans following the war to the extent that those same Axis powers were able to use to their benefit. Another surprise for me was Niall's argument that Britain continued to lose imperial possessions after the war due to the sometimes predatory policies of the US. While the 20th century relationship between the US and Great Britain is often portrayed as one of friendship, Ferguson paints a picture of a US more interested in containing communist expansion at the expense of the British Empire during the Cold War. Through a series of humbling military blunders (such as the Suez military campaign in 1956) and numerous Independence movements among the colonies, British colonial administrators often found themselves presiding over poignant transfer-of-power ceremonies, the British empire steadily disintegrating after the 1940s to today's Commonwealth of a few scattered islands around the world.

Why should we feel sorry for the demise of an empire? Traditionally, empires are seen as evil accumulations of power, enslaving masses of subjects for the benefit of a ruthless ruling people. Niall argues that while this has happened in the long history of civilization, empires are not all evil, and in fact the British empire was in the end a positive presence in the world. Ferguson says that without it, the spread of democracy, capitalism, even the predominance of the English language as the world's business lingua franca would not have happened, or to a much smaller degree.

Throughout the book, comparisons were made between the past British empire with the current "empire" of the United States. This is indeed an intriguing comparison, and in fact is the subject of another of his books- "Colossus - The Rise and Fall of the American Empire".

For those whose interests point in this direction, I can recommend this book as a thoughtful, if at times controversial story of a deceased Empire that left an indelible stamp on the modern world.

What Started out as Survival Mode, Turned into Empire.......2007-07-16

Based on Ferguson's analysis, the growth of British Empire was in many ways serendipity. Starting by building a large private navy, based on privateers (read Pirates) and then expanding it into the British Navy, England originally got into the "Empire Business" as an offshoot of it's plundering of the Spanish and Portuguese New World Empires. Once they got good at attacking the Spanish 'Treasure Fleets' it was just one stop further to taking over some of the territory for 'security' reasons (sound familiar).

They became so good at it that at one point the British Empire ruled over 25% of the total land surface of the earth and the sun never set on the British Empire. At the same time, no other country contained a Navy that could compete with their's or their merchant fleet. For the British the Empire was a money making proposition up until the 20th century. Each of the colonies paid it's own way from trade or investment. It was only after almost bankrupting themselves during the two world wars, that the Empire became a millstone around their neck.

In Ferguson's conclusion, he discusses (rather jingoistically) how in the final analysis, the British brought more to the people of the 'colonies' than they even took from them; even taking into account the death and destruction that was wrought in the name of 'civilization'.

Ferguson seems to have missed three interesting and important points: 1) the British created and then ended the slave trade (though much after it stopped being economically viable), 2) they created the first major drug cartel (forcing China to open itself up to the importation of Opium from India) and, 3) that by bailing out of Africa in the 1960s, they left most of those colonies unready for independence or democracy.

As to the slave trade, many a British (and American) fortune can trace themselves back to a relative who made their money as part of either the trade in slaves or the use of them on the West Indian sugar plantations. Only at the beginning of the nineteenth century did they decide that it was an "unChristian" institution. Planters were fast to learn that it was cheaper to hire slaves as 'seasonal' workers than to take care of them from cradle to grave; because those on these islands had no choice except to go back to Africa.

The Opium War was fought in the middle Eighteenth Century to force China to allow the continued importation of Opium (through Hong Kong) into their country. It was the beginning of the long spiral of Chinese subjugation and the blueprint for how to make money by exporting large amounts of drugs into another country. Today's narco-traffickers learned their lessons well.

Lastly, one of the major problems with the African continent (and this includes the French and Portuguese) was that the colonies that were created were done so on an ad-hoc basis. Except for in a few instances (such as Egypt and Ethiopia), nations and tribes that had been adversaries for generations were lumped together in Colonies. No where did any of the colonial powers prepare for democracy, most were run by the British Colonial Office (with mostly white managers) who left little government structure behind them when they pulled out. In many cases they had raised a small tribe to prominence (because they were Christians, think the Ibo's in Nigeria) which were left with the stigma of collaborators after the British left.

For some reason, the United Nations bought the idea that none of the colonies in Africa should be allowed to break up and seek their own level of comfort in size and composition. It's as if the example of nationalism for the last hundred years in Europe never happened. Almost every country in Europe (except Belgium) is now ethnically homogenized. No one complained when Czechoslavakia had their velvet divorce; and the ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia differs little from what happened in Poland and East Prussia after WW2.

It's a good read and my only real complaint is about the structure of the book. It's printed like a textbook so that the pages have lots of room for footnotes on the inside columns, but the size of the type is quite small and gets smaller when in quotation so that it can be very tiring to read for long periods. Oh well.

Imperialist who is not completely wrong.......2007-07-11

Good writer. It would be obvious to the reader that the author has a more positive view on British Colonism than most people who grew up in a British colony. That said, being one who came from a British colony myself, I personally think that the writer is not completely biased and I agree with some of his views. I am curious how many people in Britian shares the authors view. In the least, this will be a feel-good book for British to read. For those full of resentment on past colonial history, reading this at least will present a different point of view to you.

Like Imperialism itself, this book is Fun...but Wrong.......2007-07-06

As a professional historian who specializes in European imperialism, I can easily explain why the book was panned by professionals, but popular with amateurs.

Ferguson is, quite simply, a great writer. His anecdotes are apt, his comments witty, and his stories are either dashing or tragic. Great stuff.

But the book is so flawed historically as to be basically useless.

I taught with it once. My students loved it for the first few chapters... but after I pointed out to them the many factual errors and especially, the MAJOR errors of omission that riddle every single chapter.... and then showed how Ferguson's re-enchantment of "empire" not only saturates but slants every single argument in the book...hey quickly lost interest in it. (And understandably so: if you can't trust the author, why waste your time reading the book, no matter how entertaining?)

For an example, read closely his section "Black and White" in the chapter "White Plague". At first glance, it seems to say that British slavery was indeed quite awful, gosh darnit bad, etc. etc. etc. But pore over it more closely, and you'll recognize that he is, in fact, working quite hard to equate the slavery (of Africans) to indentured servitude (of Europeans), both practically and (by extension) morally. (!)
This is, quite simply, wrong and wrong-headed. I can't go into all the reasons here, but trust me: if you are ever reincarnated in the 18th century, and you have the choice of coming back as a black slave or as a white indentured servant, do yourself a big favor: choose indentured servitude.

It is an "apology" of Empire in every sense of the word.

And as a historian, I find it just a bit unethical.

The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire

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Nice Introduction
A Comprehensible Comparative History
A totally new look on Westernization
wholly inadequate
Comparative History at its best

The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire
Philip D. Curtin
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521890543

Book Description

This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries--the age of European empire. Through a variety of case studies, it considers the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, African, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power of the period.

Customer Reviews:

Nice Introduction.......2005-02-13

Curtin is a prominent historian and one of the founding figures of world or comparative history. His output has largely been relatively focused monographs and essays aimed largely at other scholars. This book is an apparent attempt to reach a larger reading public. The theme is the nature of Western domination of the globe over the 2-3 centuries and the reactions of other societies to Western dominance. This is not a systematic history. Curtin presents a series of short essays covering the trajectory of Western dominance, its characteristics, its decline, and the response of non-Western societies of Western dominance. Each essay centers on a single historic episode which is used to illustrate the general themes. At the same time, the concentration on specific episodes allows Curtin to emphasize the heterogeneous nature of this historic process. The essays are individually written well and conclude with a short and informative bibliography. Some cover well known topics, such as the Meiji restoration of Japan. Others, like his discussion of millenial movements resulting from encounters with the West, feature less familiar episodes. Curtin avoids dogma and theorizing and writes with a clear, succinct style. A very good book for those who are looking for a starting point on world history.

A Comprehensible Comparative History.......2003-03-12

As a graduate student of Near Eastern Studies, with an extreme interest in world history, I found Curtin's book both enlightening and pleasurable. The first part of his book offers a background from which his numerous case studies find their premise. The case studies themselves are the highlight of the book; collectively a masterpiece of comparative history, they offer both insight on the relativity to processes simultaneously occuring around the world, as well as patterns in society trends. All in all, I found this piece of work to be a wonderful read for any student or professor of both world and comparative history.

A totally new look on Westernization.......2001-11-01

Philip Curtin greatest tribute to history is to review 500 years of Western influence across the World with new eyes. Instead of a Eurocentered vision of the World (we civilized them all) or an anti-imperialist vision (everything the West has done is bad), he studies the 500 years of colonization in 4 steps.

First, the conquest and how Europe took over the world. Basically prior to 1800, Europe only held a global string of outposts and it is after that date the European empires really become territorial. He also describes the impact of technology (medical science, a fundamental element for White men survival under the tropics) and the various politics of imperialism.

Second, the cultural impact on different types societies all around the globe: America, Africa, Asia. Third how Europe tries to convert the World to its creed and how the World adopts some elements while rejects other. And fourth, how the colonies, semi-colonies or states influenced by Europe (Thailand, Japan) regain their independance, the type of responses (resistance: personal, utopian, revolutionnary) and how to succeed after the Europeans are gone.

At the end of each chapter, the reader receives a list of recommanded books for further personal investigation (and there are many new paths to explore). And when the book is finished one as a better understanding of cultural relations, impact of colonization, possible paths of resistance against an agression, the internal mechanisms of a local society and how its cope with a foreign phenomenon, etc...

A key book for the 21st century, not the definitive book about the subject but definitively the one offering a sweeping global vision on the subject for the first time.

wholly inadequate.......2000-11-07

Slapdash research, shallow thinking, dull writing.

Comparative History at its best.......2000-08-04

Within the history profession, Philip Curtin is one of the fathers of comparative history, if for no other reason than so many of his students have become professors who also write and teach comparative history. His stature within the profession is hard to exaggerate. At a recent conference on world history, I overheard a group of educators brainstorming a shortlist of "essential authors". They reached an immediate consensus on William McNeill, Alfred Crosby, and Philip Curtin...and then paused for debate. There is clearly an audience of professional historians out there who are review-proof.

Thirty years ago, Philip Curtin published a book entitled *Imperialism*. Today the lexicon - and the perspective - have changed. He begins *The World and the West* with a discussion about the varieties of "colonialism". Only then does he begin to explore loaded concepts like "diffusion" and "modernization" using case studies that illustrate selective, syncretic processes. European states are reluctant, even unable, to administer colonies without the collaboration of local elites; efforts to modernize or reform lead to unintended consequences including defensive modernization and millennialism. Modernization inevitably transforms societies, but it often carries only a veneer of westernization.

Curtin's forte is comparison, and his case studies reveal diversity than enrich his arguments. One expects Japan and the Ottomans, but Central Asia and South Africa? Buganda and Siam? Ghana and Indonesia? It's clear why Curtin is held in such high regard among world historians. The scope of his comparisons is global.

This is clearly one of those 'not for everybody' books, but to its credit, it is under 300 pages and the case studies are very accessible. You don't need to be a professional historian to read and enjoy the book. Indeed, professional historians may take issue with some of Curtin's interpretations. (That's not just their right; it's their job.) My only criticism is that I would have liked more maps and photos - especially in the first half of the book. Other than that, I think Philip Curtin fans are in for a treat.

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Schwartz redefines the field

Seth's Q-rating

Concrete and Dry

Genius!

Genius!

Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. (Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ancient to the Modern World)
Seth Schwartz
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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From the Maccabees to the Mishnah, Second Edition

The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

Texts and Traditions: A Source Reader for the Study of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash

From Text to Tradition, a History of Judaism in Second Temple and Rabbinic Times: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism

ASIN: 0691117810

Book Description

This provocative new history of Palestinian Jewish society in antiquity marks the first comprehensive effort to gauge the effects of imperial domination on this people. Probing more than eight centuries of Persian, Greek, and Roman rule, Seth Schwartz reaches some startling conclusions--foremost among them that the Christianization of the Roman Empire generated the most fundamental features of medieval and modern Jewish life.

Schwartz begins by arguing that the distinctiveness of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and early Roman periods was the product of generally prevailing imperial tolerance. From around 70 C.E. to the mid-fourth century, with failed revolts and the alluring cultural norms of the High Roman Empire, Judaism all but disintegrated. However, late in the Roman Empire, the Christianized state played a decisive role in ''re-Judaizing'' the Jews. The state gradually excluded them from society while supporting their leaders and recognizing their local communities. It was thus in Late Antiquity that the synagogue-centered community became prevalent among the Jews, that there re-emerged a distinctively Jewish art and literature--laying the foundations for Judaism as we know it today.

Through masterful scholarship set in rich detail, this book challenges traditional views rooted in romantic notions about Jewish fortitude. Integrating material relics and literature while setting the Jews in their eastern Mediterranean context, it addresses the complex and varied consequences of imperialism on this vast period of Jewish history more ambitiously than ever before. Imperialism in Jewish Society will be widely read and much debated.

Customer Reviews:

Schwartz redefines the field.......2004-03-10

Dr. Schwartz's book redefines the field for the study of Ancient Judaism. Any serious student of the topic has to read this book. Clearly the Israeli scholars and other adherents to the "maximalist" school will find Schawrtz upsetting. On the other hand, many other serious scholars agree with Schwartz's direction, if not conclusions. This is state of the art scholarship at its best.

This book is not for "novices" when it comes to Jewish history. It was written for an informed academic audience. It is heavily footnoted, makes ongoing references to debates within scholarly circles, and presents an impressive bibliography spanning many different disciplines.

My personal copy barely has two pages go by without my notes and underlining. I personally feel that this is one of the most important books in the field to emerge in years.

Seth's Q-rating.......2003-06-20

Seth's favorite letter is Q, by the way. He especially likes words like Qedem and Qerovah where the Q doesn't have a U after it.

Concrete and Dry.......2002-12-14

As a reader a few "light" histories of the era, I have a passing familiarity with the chronology, personalities, and issues of the time. None of this prepared me for the obscurity of Professor Schwartz's book. It reads like a doctoral thesis; short on description, long on concrete assertions and refutations of such. It's hard to read and hard to appreciate unless you are a REAL student of the time and are throughly familiar with the subject matter. I was so disappointed with how dense this book is that I'm stunned that it's being recommended for the casually interested history reader.

Genius!.......2002-12-05

I had the priviledge of taking a course on Ancient Jewish History from Seth Schwartz. This was actually the same course taken by the previous reviewer, sbelect2. I hardly went. Realizing I was not going to do well on the final, I purchased the book. It was brilliant. Not only was it informative, it kindled an interest in Ancient Judaism with me.

Genius!.......2002-10-21

Seth Schwartz is a genius. This man takes everything you thought you knew about Ancient Judaism and turns it on it's side ... this man is one of the most brilliant people I have ever had the oppurtunity to meet, and I was lucky enough to take a class taught by him.

Book Description

Volume I of The Oxford History of the British Empire explores the origins of empire. It shows how and why England, and later Britain, became involved with transoceanic navigation, trade, and settlement during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As late as 1630 involvement with regions beyond the traditional confines of Europe was still tentative; by 1690 it had become a firm commitment. The Origins of Empire explains how commercial and, eventually, territorial expansion brought about fundamental change, not only in the parts of America, Africa, and Asia that came under British influence, but also in domestic society and in Britain's relations with other European powers. The chapters, by leading historians, both illustrate the interconnections between developments in Europe and overseas and offer specialist studies on every part of the world that was substantially affected by British colonial activity. Their analysis also focuses on the ethical issues that were presented by the encounter with peoples previously unknown to Europeans, and on the ways in which the colonists struggled to justify their conduct and activities. Series blurb The Oxford History of the British Empire is a major new assessment of the Empire in the light of recent scholarship and the progressive opening of historical records. From the founding of colonies in North America and the West Indies in the seventeenth century to the reversion of Hong Kong to China at the end of the twentieth, British imperialism was a catalyst for far-reaching change. The Oxford History of the British Empire as a comprehensive study allows us to understand the end of Empire in relation to its beginnings, the meaning of British imperialism for the ruled as well as the rulers, and the significence of the British Empire as a theme in world history.

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Great Book for History Buffs.......2007-10-18

If you are a history buff then this is the book for you. It gives you a lot of detail. I plan on getting the other books in this series. It is top notch and a must have for anyone that seriously wants to study history.

Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World

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A Multi-disciplinary Treatment of the Exclusionary "Other"

Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World

Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520206053

Book Description

Starting with the premise that Europe was made by its imperial projects as much as colonial encounters were shaped by events and conflicts in Europe, the contributors to Tensions of Empire investigate metropolitan-colonial relationships from a new perspective. The fifteen essays demonstrate various ways in which "civilizing missions" in both metropolis and colony provided new sites for clarifying a bourgeois order. Focusing on the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, they show how new definitions of modernity and welfare were developed and how new discourses and practices of inclusion and exclusion were contested and worked out. The contributors argue that colonial studies can no longer be confined to the units of analysis on which it once relied; instead of being the study of "the colonized," it must account for the shifting political terrain on which the very categories of colonized and colonizer have been shaped and patterned at different times.

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A Multi-disciplinary Treatment of the Exclusionary "Other".......2005-01-14

In this collection of essays, Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler have attempted to shed light on an often overlooked aspect of European imperialism; the colonized. Specifically, the authors contend it is that gray area "between the public institutions of the colonial state and the intimate reaches of people's lives that seemed to us to demand more attention." Realizing the diversity of the European colonial experience, the authors wanted to examine whether or not there exists a correlation between the archival histories of the major European imperial powers-Germany, France, Great Britain and the Netherlands. Incorporating what some historians have referred to as "the holy trinity"-gender, race and class-Cooper and Stoler have collected an assemblage of scholarship that takes a look at the indigenous experience, or as the title suggests, tensions that existed within the exclusionary "Other" and their culture of colonization. In keeping with the French Annalist, Marxist tradition of social-economic historiography that had grown popular in the 1960's and 1970's, the essays not only reinforce the evils of capitalistic exploitation, but also incorporate to a large extent, the field of anthropology to the blurred genres of interdisciplinary scholarship. In a sense, the articles read like anthropological field studies in an historical setting. For example, in "Le Bebe en Brousse: European Women, African Birth Spacing, and Colonial Intervention in Breast Feeding in the Belgian Congo" (pp. 287-321), Nancy Rose Hunt, examines the affect colonial institutions had upon a natural birth control method common in many underdeveloped countries, prolonged breast feeding, or birth spacing. Birth spacing and the ethnographic cocoon in which it rests are usually the work of anthropologists not historians. But as we can see from Ms Hunt's argument, the combination of cultural and political studies makes for an interesting blend of social history. In a similar essay titled: "Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in Colonial Southeast Asia" (pp.198-237), Ann Stoler examines the problem of colonial and indigenous union-"mixed bloods"-and the affects this relationship between inclusionary impulses and exclusionary practices has on French and Dutch nationalism. Here again, as her subtitle suggests, the blending of culture and politics, usually the stuff of varying floors of a Humanities building, has come together in a compatible marriage. This book might not appeal to those accustomed to the standard fair of colonial history. The editor's long and winded introduction does not fully prepare the reader for the interesting essays that follow. Had the editors added a conclusion tying the confusing section headings together, and concisely formulated their opening, the finished product would have been more easily digestible. Ending on a positive note, the lengthy bibliography at the end of each article provides the reader with ample fodder for further inquiry. Perhaps destined to never fine a home on an undergraduate syllabus, this work is, noneheless, a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary paradigm that has taken hold of the historical profession.

The Great Powers, Imperialism and the German Problem 1865-1925

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For a good understanding of the origions of WWI

The Great Powers, Imperialism and the German Problem 1865-1925
John Lowe
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415104440

Book Description

John Lowe introduces the major issues in international affairs (many of which are now highly topical) from the period of German Unification up to the aftermath of the First World War, stressing the impact on imperialist expansion

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For a good understanding of the origions of WWI.......1999-11-01

When I studied history in college, this was the most valuable book for understanding the origins of World War I. Both comprehensive and highly readable. Daniel Headrick's "Tools of Empire" makes an excellent companion reader (Thank you, Prof. William Green, College of the Holy Cross!)

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Earl Bathurst and the British Empire
Neville Thompson
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The behind-the-scenes story of British agents and diplomats operating around the world in the decades after Waterloo. Scholars and general readers alike will be fascinated by this look into a world of intrigue, destabilization and covert operations of a type normally associated with more modern times.

Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics)

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Deep
4 Monkeys
Actually haunting...
Full of crazy characters and vivid images
Book = great - durability = awful

Heart of Darkness and Other Tales (Oxford World's Classics)
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192801724

Book Description

HEART OF DARKNESS*AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS*KARAIN*YOUTH The finest of all Conrad's tales, 'Heart of Darkness' is set in an atmosphere of mystery and menace, and tells of Marlow's perilous journey up the Congo River to relieve his employer's agent, the renowned and formidable Mr Kurtz. What he sees on his journey, and his eventual encounter with Kurtz, horrify and perplex him, and call into question the very bases of civilization and human nature. Endlessly reinterpreted by critics and adapted for film, radio, and television, the story shows Conrad at his most intense and sophisticated. The other three tales in this volume depict corruption and obsession, and question racial assumptions. Set in the exotic surroundings of Africa, Malaysia. and the east, they variously appraise the glamour, folly, and rapacity of imperial adventure. This revised edition uses the English first edition texts and has a new chronology and bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

Deep.......2006-07-29

The four tales in this collection are beautifully composed; they are art, not just stories. Each story is deep in its unique complexities. Each one has plots and subplots and paints an impeccable image of the story upon the reader's mind. And when I look back upon the book as a whole, upon the adventurous stories, the excitement and emotion that the author presents so exquisitely, I can't help but be extremely impressed.

4 Monkeys.......2004-06-26

If you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, would they eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare? Who knows?

What I do know is that "Heart of Darkness" could be the result of 4 monkeys doing about 2 hours of work. To read the book is a chore.

My daughter had to read this book as part of a summer assignment for English. I, being one to read classics, looked forward to reading another good book.

Conrad's rambling tale is difficult to follow, but even more, BORING to follow.

I can more easily read a book on quantum physics. To require someone to read Conrad is more like punishment than education.

Actually haunting..........2004-06-21

The word's thrown around a lot, but this is the only case where I've actually been literally haunted by a book. It surfaces in the mind when I don't intend for it to, and its disturbing. I've never been really psychologically messed with by a book like this. I mean, not bad, but I get chills thinking about it. Like someone said, the images are great. The ship firing into the continent is one of those I can't get out of my head. And for those of you who are curious after seeing Apocolypse Now, I think they really messed up the Kurtz character. Its one of, if not the one of, my favorite movies, but he's so overacted and the script never really tells what the horror is. From the movie I got that it was the situation and man's situation, but from the book it is definitely the mind and soul, in my opinion. Any social commentary in the book is secondary to the more philosophical and psychological, here, I feel.
I also enjoyed Lord Jim and every one of his other short stories I've read, but none have been as good as Heart of Darkness. I'll probably read Nostromo pretty soon, too. If you want another take on a somewhat similar situation in colonial Africa, check out Journey to the End of the Night by Celine. I didn't so much care for the book as a whole, but that part has stuck with me.

Full of crazy characters and vivid images.......2004-05-03

Heart of Darkness is, without a doubt, one of the best and most confusing books ever written. It is probably the most discussed book of the 20th century, and an obscene number of academic papers, criticisms and interpretations have been written about it. What does it mean, everyone wants to know. It is so impenetrable, to use one of Marlow's favorite words. Even if you don't want to spend the time figuring out the "message" (if there is one), this is a great novel simply for the characters and the images.

Our narrator, Marlow, is a fascinating character in himself, and he always makes me smile with his wit and insight, though he can be a little pretentious. Kurtz is an enigma, a man who has set himself up as a god with unclear motives. He is taken care of my a Russian harlequin, a hilarious idealist who forgives that Kurtz once threatened to kill him (you can't judge a man like that by ordinary standards!) Marlow comes across many others, such as the fat Englishman who cannot stop fainting on their way to see Kurtz. The imagery is evocative and haunting. A group of starving indiginous men are referred to as a "bundle of acute angles." The scenery is described better than a movie could portray (Apocalypse Now does the jungle no justice.)

It's a short book too, so you have no excuse for not reading it!

Book = great - durability = awful.......2003-08-31

I was assigned Heart of Darkness as part of my summer reading regiment for my english class. I usually don't enjoy assigned books because I often try and pay attention to all the details rather than just read it for fun. However, this book, albeit a bit confusing, is definately good. It really gets your brain going as you question your own opinions on imperialism. Plus, it contains explanatory notes in the back, which definately help to understand the context. However, its MAJOR fallacy with THIS exact publication is its shoddy manufacturing. I've had the book only for one month and the pages that Heart of Darkness are on are already falling apart from the binding of the book. And I treated it well - all I have done is placed it in my backpack when traveling to a few places. Overall, the literary piece is good and so are the explanatory notes, but if you can't stand your book falling apart (trust me, it's really annoying), then search elsewhere for a different copy of this book.

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