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NANCY J. CURTIN PROFESSOR OF HISTORY FORDHAM UNIVERSITY |
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HSGA 5403 Nancy Curtin The British Empire 618 Dealy, x0730 Fall 2007 nancy.curtin@verizon.net
Course description This course examines the history and historiography of the British Empire and decolonization from the 16th to the 20th centuries. We will look at specific case studies, including Ireland, India, Jamaica, and South Africa, to explore both a typology and chronology of empire as well as the more detailed interaction between metropole and periphery. We will also take a more general and critical look at explanatory metanarratives of empire such as western capitalist expansion or postcolonial theory.
Requirements Meaningful class participation (including co-leading discussions) – 50% Paper (20-25 pages) – 50% You may choose the most appropriate option below: 1) Research Proposal (methodology, review of the literature, preliminary bibliography of primary and secondary sources) 2) Bibliographic Essay on a topic of your choice (subject to instructor approval) 3) Final essay based on cumulative reading in response to questions to be set by instructor All papers are due on December 21; absolutely no extensions
Required Texts David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (2005) Nicholas B. Dirks, The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain (2006) Tony Dodge, Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied (2005) T.O. Lloyd, The British Empire, 1558-1995 (1997) Bernard Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society and Culture in Britain (2006) Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (1994) Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (1944) All the above texts are at the bookstore and all are available on Reserve at Walsh Library with those readings marked with an (*) below. All journal articles are available on-line as Electronic Journals via Fordham Library The syllabus as well as forthcoming course documents and a discussion board are on Blackboard (http://fordham.blackboard.com/).
Schedule of Meetings Sept. 7 Introduction
Overviews and Methodologies
Sept. 14 -- Empire -- 16th Century to Present *T.O. Lloyd, The British Empire, 1558-1995
Sept. 21 -- Economics of Empire Lance E. Davis; Robert A. Huttenback, “The Political Economy of British Imperialism: Measures of Benefits and Support, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 119-130 P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, “Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas I. The Old Colonial System, 1688-1850,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Nov., 1986), pp. 501-525 P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins, “Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas II. New Imperialism, 1850-1945,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Feb., 1987), pp. 1-26 Patrick O’Brien, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism, 1846-1914,” Past and Present, No. 120 (Aug., 1988), pp. 163-200 Paul Kennedy, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism, 1846-1914,” Past and Present, No. 125 (Nov., 1989), pp. 186-192 Patrick, O’Brien, “The Costs and Benefits of British Imperialism 1846-1914: Reply,” Past and Present, No. 125 (Nov., 1989), pp. 192-199
Sept. 28 – The Empire Strikes Back -- Post-colonial Theory *Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism Gyan Prakash, “Subaltern Studies as Postcolonial Criticism,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 99, No. 5 (Dec., 1994), pp. 1475-1490 Frederick Cooper, “Conflict and Connection: Rethinking Colonial African History,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 99, No. 5 (Dec., 1994), pp. 1516-1545
Oct. 5 -- Gender, Race and Sexuality Mrinalini Sinha , “Britishness, Clubbability, and the Colonial Public Sphere: The Genealogy of an Imperial Institution in Colonial India” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), pp. 489-521 Mary A. Procida, “Good Sports and Right Sorts: Guns, Gender, and Imperialism in British India,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), pp. 454-488 Elazar Barkan, “Post-Anti-Colonial Histories: Representing the Other in Imperial Britain,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), pp. 180-203 Luise White, “Separating the Men from the Boys: Constructions of Gender, Sexuality, and Terrorism in Central Kenya, 1939-1959,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (1990), pp. 1-25 Klaus Neumann, “Anxieties in colonial Mauritius and the Erosion of the White Australia Policy,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Sept., 2004), pp. 1-24 Seymour Drescher, “The Ending of the Slave Trade and the Evolution of European Scientific Racism,” Social Science History, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 415-450 Andrew Bank, “Of 'Native Skulls' and 'Noble Caucasians': Phrenology in Colonial South Africa,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3 (Sep., 1996), pp. 387-403 Douglas Lorimer, “Theoretical Racism in Late-Victorian Anthropology, 1870-1900,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Spring, 1988), pp. 405-430 *Anna Davin, “Imperialism and Motherhood” in Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, ed. Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (Berkeley, 1997), pp. 87-151.
Oct. 14 (Note this is a Sunday, time and place TBA) -- The Empire at Home *Bernard Porter, The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society and Culture in Britain
Case Studies
Oct. 19 – The Early Modern Empire – Conquest, Settlement and Monopoly trade Nicholas P. Canny, “The Ideology of English Colonization: From Ireland to America,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 575-598 *Nicholas B. Dirks, The Scandal of Empire: India and the Creation of Imperial Britain
Oct. 26 -- Sugar, Slaves, and the Industrial Revolution *Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery Roger Antsey, “A Re-Interpretation of the Abolition of the British Slave Trade, 1806-1807,” The English Historical Review, Vol. 87, No. 343 (Apr., 1972), pp. 304-332 Seymour Drescher, “Whose Abolition? Popular Pressure and the Ending of the British Slave Trade,” Past and Present, No. 143 (May, 1994), pp. 136-166
Nov. 2 -- Massacres, Wars, and the Technologies of Dominance B. A. Knox, “The British Government and the Governor Eyre Controversy, 1865-1875,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 877-900. Charles Townshend, “Martial Law: Legal and Administrative Problems of Civil Emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800-1940,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 167-195 Purnima Bose; Laura Lyons, “Dyer Consequences: The Trope of Amritsar, Ireland, and the Lessons of the "Minimum" Force Debate,” boundary 2, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 199-229. Daniel R. Headrick, “The Tools of Imperialism: Technology and the Expansion of European Colonial Empires in the Nineteenth Century,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Jun., 1979), pp. 231-263. Barbara English, “The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857,” Past and Present, No. 142 (Feb., 1994), pp. 169-178 Rudrangshu Mukherjee, “’Satan Let Loose upon Earth’: The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857,” Past and Present, No. 128 (Aug., 1990), pp. 92-116 Rudrangshu Mukherjee, “The Kanpur Massacres in India in the Revolt of 1857: Reply,” Past and Present, No. 142 (Feb., 1994), pp. 178-189 Derek Sayer, “British Reaction to the Amritsar Massacre 1919-1920,” Past and Present, No. 131 (May, 1991), pp. 130-164 D. George Boyce, “From Assaye to the Assaye: Reflections on British Government, Force, and Moral Authority in India,” The Journal of Military History, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Jul., 1999), pp. 643-668
Nov. 9 -- Free traders, Freebooters and Christian Missionaries Anthony J. Dachs, “Missionary Imperialism-The Case of Bechuanaland,” The Journal of African History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (1972), pp. 647-658. Brian Stanley, “'Commerce and Christianity': Providence Theory, the Missionary Movement, and the Imperialism of Free Trade, 1842-1860,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Mar., 1983), pp. 71-94 Andrew Porter, “'Commerce and Christianity': The Rise and Fall of a Nineteenth-Century Missionary Slogan,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1985), pp. 597-621 Felix Driver, “Henry Morton Stanley and His Critics: Geography, Exploration and Empire,” Past and Present, No. 133 (Nov., 1991), pp. 134-166 I. R. Phimister, “Rhodes, Rhodesia and the Rand,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Oct., 1974), pp. 74-90 John Darwin, “Imperialism and the Victorians: The Dynamics of Territorial Expansion,” The English Historical Review, Vol. 112, No. 447 (Jun., 1997), pp. 614-642 Andrew Porter, “The South African War (1899-1902): Context and Motive Reconsidered,” The Journal of African History, Vol. 31, No. 1 (1990), pp. 43-57 Donald Denoon, “Capital and Capitalists in the Transvaal in the 1890s and 1900s,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Mar., 1980), pp. 111-132 *Susan Thorne, “‘The Conversion of Englishmen and the Conversion of the World Inseparable’: Missionary Imperialism and the Language of Class in Early Industrial Britain’’ in Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, ed. Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (Berkeley, 1997), pp. 238-262
Nov. 16 -- The Middle East *Tony Dodge, Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied Anthony Adamthwaite, “Suez Revisited,” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 64, No. 3 (Summer, 1988), pp. 449-464 William Louis Gates, “British Withdrawl from the Gulf, 1967-71,” Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 2003) pp. 83-108 Eitan Bar-Yosef, “The Last Crusade? British Propaganda and the Palestine Campaign, 1917-18,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan., 2001), pp. 87-109
Nov. 30 -- Decolonization – Ireland, India Michael Silvestri, “’The Sinn Fein of India’: Irish Nationalism and the Policing of Revolutionary Terrorism in Bengal,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 454-486 Tom Garvin, “The Anatomy of a Nationalist Revolution: Ireland, 1858-1928,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul., 1986), pp. 468-501 Charles Townshend, “The Irish Republican Army and the Development of Guerrilla Warfare, 1916-1921,” The English Historical Review, Vol. 94, No. 371 (Apr., 1979), pp. 318-345 C. A. Bayly, “Ireland, India and the Empire: 1780-1914,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th Ser., Vol. 10 (2000), pp. 377-397 Howard Brasted, “Indian Nationalist Development and the Influence of Irish Home Rule, 1870-1886,” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1980), pp. 37-63 Anita Inder Singh, “Keeping India in the Commonwealth: British Political and Military Aims, 1947-49,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jul., 1985), pp. 469-481 Ian Copland, “The Further Shores of Partition: Ethnic Cleansing in Rajasthan 1947,” Past and Present, No. 160 (Aug., 1998), pp. 203-239 *Deirdre McMahon, “Ireland and the Empire-Commonwealth, 1900-1948” in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century, ed. Judith M. Brown and William Roger Louis (Oxford, 1999), pp. 138-162 *Judith M. Brown, “India” in in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century, ed. Judith M. Brown and William Roger Louis (Oxford, 1999), pp. 421-446
Dec. 7 -- Decolonization – East Africa *David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire Robin W. Winks, “On Decolonization and Informal Empire,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 81, No. 3 (Jun., 1976), pp. 540-556 Tony Smith, “A Comparative Study of French and British Decolonization,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Jan., 1978), pp. 70-102
Dec. 14 – Imagined Empire – Imperialism and Popular Culture Patrick A. Dunae, “Boys' Literature and the Idea of Empire, 1870-1914,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 105-121 Wendy Webster, "’There'll Always Be an England’: Representations of Colonial Wars and Immigration, 1948-1968,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Oct., 2001), pp. 557-584 Brian Stoddart, ”Sport, Cultural Imperialism, and Colonial Response in the British Empire,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1988), pp. 649-673 Anne M. Windholz, “An Emigrant and a Gentleman: Imperial Masculinity, British Magazines, and the Colony That Got Away,” Victorian Studies, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Summer, 1999 - Summer, 2000), pp. 631-658 Martin Hall, “The Legend of the Lost City; Or, the Man with Golden Balls,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1995), pp. 179-199 Gordon T. Stewart, “Tenzing's Two Wrist-Watches: The Conquest of Everest and Late Imperial Culture in Britain 1921-1953,” Past and Present, No. 149 (Nov., 1995), pp. 170-197 Paul R. Deslandes, ”’The Foreign Element’: Newcomers and the Rhetoric of Race, Nation, and Empire in "Oxbridge" Undergraduate Culture, 1850-1920,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Jan., 1998), pp. 54-90 Andrew S. Thompson, “The Language of Imperialism and the Meanings of Empire: Imperial Discourse in British Politics, 1895-1914,” The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 147-177 *J.A. Mangan, “’The Grit of Our Forefathers’: Invented Traditions, Propaganda and Imperialism” in Imperialism and Popular Culture, ed. John M. MacKenzie (Manchester, 1986), pp. 113-139 *Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siecle (New York, 1990), ch. 5, “King Romance” *John M. MacKenzie, “The Popular Culture of Empire in Britain” in The Oxford History of the British Empire, Vol. IV: The Twentieth Century, ed. Judith M. Brown and William Roger Louis (Oxford, 1999), pp. 212-231
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