Puneet Varma (Editor)

Ornamentalism

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Country
  
United Kingdom

Originally published
  
2001

Genre
  
History

Language
  
English

Author
  
David Cannadine

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Similar
  
David Cannadine books, Imperialism books, History books

jlf 2014 ornamentalism how the british saw their empire


Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire is a book by David Cannadine about British perceptions of the British Empire. Cannadine argues that class, rank and status were more important to the British Empire than race. The title of the work Ornamentalism is a direct reference to Edward Said's book Orientalism, which argues the existence of prejudiced outsider interpretations of the East, shaped by the attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has also been argued to borrow tones from the title of Joseph Scumpeter's "Imperialism and Social Classes which some historians see as the origins of the 'Ornamentalist' perspective in academic history'

Contents

Analysis

Peter J. Marshall states that Cannadine makes two arguments in Ornamentalism:

  • 1. "...the history of the British empire and the history of Britain itself are inseparable and must be studied as a seamless whole"
  • 2. "the high days of British imperialism, that is from about 1850 to about 1950, the history of the empire and that of Britain were brought together by a British commitment to reproduce overseas the kind of hierarchical society that, Cannadine believes, existed in Britain"
  • Criticism

    Ornamentalism has been criticized for underplaying the racist element of the civilising mission.

    References

    Ornamentalism Wikipedia