A Turn to Empire : The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France /
Pitts, Jennifer
A Turn to Empire : The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France / Jennifer Pitts. - Course Book - 1 online resource
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- One. Introduction -- Part One. Cristics Of Empire -- Two. Adam Smith on Societal Development and Colonial Rule -- Three. Edmund Burke's Peculiar Universalism -- Part 2: Utilitarians and the Turn to Empire in Britain -- Four. Jeremy Bentham: Legislator of the World? -- Five. James and John Stuart Mill: The Development of Imperial Liberalism in Britain -- Part 3: Liberals and the Turn to Empire in France -- Six. The Liberal Volte-Face in France -- Seven. Tocqueville and the Algeria Question -- Eight. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears. Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691127910 9781400826636
10.1515/9781400826636 doi
Imperialism--History--18th century.
Imperialism--History--19th century.
Liberalism--History--18th century.
Liberalism--History--19th century.
Political science--History.--France
Political science--History.--Great Britain
Liberalismus
Imperialismus
PHILOSOPHY / Political.
JC359
325.341 01
A Turn to Empire : The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France / Jennifer Pitts. - Course Book - 1 online resource
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- One. Introduction -- Part One. Cristics Of Empire -- Two. Adam Smith on Societal Development and Colonial Rule -- Three. Edmund Burke's Peculiar Universalism -- Part 2: Utilitarians and the Turn to Empire in Britain -- Four. Jeremy Bentham: Legislator of the World? -- Five. James and John Stuart Mill: The Development of Imperial Liberalism in Britain -- Part 3: Liberals and the Turn to Empire in France -- Six. The Liberal Volte-Face in France -- Seven. Tocqueville and the Algeria Question -- Eight. Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears. Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780691127910 9781400826636
10.1515/9781400826636 doi
Imperialism--History--18th century.
Imperialism--History--19th century.
Liberalism--History--18th century.
Liberalism--History--19th century.
Political science--History.--France
Political science--History.--Great Britain
Liberalismus
Imperialismus
PHILOSOPHY / Political.
JC359
325.341 01