Alibis of empire : Henry Maine and the ends of liberal imperialism / Karuna Mantena.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mantena, Karuna, 1974-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Imperialism.

Great Britain--Colonies.

Great Britain.

Maine, Henry Sumner, 1822-1888--Political and social views.

Maine, Henry Sumner.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (281 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Alibis of Empire presents a novel account of the origins, substance, and afterlife of late imperial ideology. Karuna Mantena challenges the idea that Victorian empire was primarily legitimated by liberal notions of progress and civilization. In fact, as the British Empire gained its farthest reach, its ideology was being dramatically transformed by a self-conscious rejection of the liberal model. The collapse of liberal imperialism enabled a new culturalism that stressed the dangers and difficulties of trying to "civilize" native peoples. And, hand in hand with this shift in thinking was a shift in practice toward models of indirect rule. As Mantena shows, the work of Victorian legal scholar Henry Maine was at the center of these momentous changes. Alibis of Empire examines how Maine's sociotheoretic model of "traditional" society laid the groundwork for the culturalist logic of late empire. In charting the movement from liberal idealism, through culturalist explanation, to retroactive alibi within nineteenth-century British imperial ideology, Alibis of Empire unearths a striking and pervasive dynamic of modern empire.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION. The Ideological Origins of Indirect Rule

CHAPTER ONE. The Crisis of Liberal Imperialism

CHAPTER TWO. Inventing Traditional Society: Empire and the Origins of Social Theory

CHAPTER THREE. Codification in the East and West

CHAPTER FOUR. The Nineteenth-Century Debate on Property

CHAPTER FIVE. Native Society in Crisis: Conceptual Foundations of Indirect Rule

CODA. Liberalism and Empire Reconsidered

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612936265

9786612457920

9781282457928

1282457926

9781282936263

1282936263

9781400835072

1400835070

OCLC:

650310432