Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire

by David Cannadine and Unknown

Book Overview

With the return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government in 1997, the empire that had lasted three hundred years and upon which the sun never set loosened its hold on the world and slipped into history. But the question of how we understand the British Empire--its origins, nature, purpose, and effect on the world it ruled--is far from settled.
In this incisive new work, already being hailed as a landmark, David Cannadine looks at the British Empire...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195146603
• ISBN13: 9780195146608
• Release Date: September 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

An unbiased look at how class was the engine for Empire.

This volume serves as an extension of Cannadine's earlier book Class In Britain. In Ornamentalism, Cannadine takes a different approach in looking at the driving force of the British Empire. It was driven not by race, but class, a traditional-hierarchical one, with the Empire being "the vehicle for the extension of British social structures, and the setting for the projection of British social perceptions, to the ends of the world and back again." This in turn means that "it was about antiquity and anachronism, tradition and honour, order and subordination, about glory and chivalry,... processions and ceremony, plumed hats and ermine robes... about thrones and crowns... dominion and hierarchy, ostentation and ornamentalism." It was thus also concerned in the constructions of affinities rather than otherness, as one of the ways to civilize the places they had taken over.Indeed, social ranking was the result of the Enlightenment's way of looking at people, races, and colour, a concept that transcended the three dynamics. And the British were far more welcoming than the racist Germans. An example was the invitation to England of King Kalakaua of Hawaii, who took precedence before the crown prince of Germany, the future Kaiser Wilhelm II, who took offence at his being ranked lower.A lot of focus is given to the nobles of other countries, as the image formed by these well-dressed personages created a dignified image of order and authority. These sultans, pashas, shahs, etc. were the apex to their own people, but formed a lateral relationship to the British dukes, princes, and marquesses. They were also important in keeping order after uprisings such as the Sepoy mutiny of 1857. India with its castes was the perfect example. Rudyard Kipling himself observed the fixed order of obedience, pack animals obeying their drivers, drivers their sergeants, sergeants to their lieutenants, lieutenants to their captains, all the way up to generals obeying their viceroy.The monarch itself symbolized the semi-divine aspect of the empire/territory/kingdom. For Queen Victoria, the number of places named after her, the buildings, statues, stamps, honours, correspondence envelopes, were all manifestations of the omnipresence of empire and thus of class. This is where Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" marches came in, in honour of the queen's Diamond Jubilee (sixtieth anniversary celebration) in 1897. Critics saw them as "glittering gaudy toys."Also, the creation of honours to promote the imperial hierarchical vision is discussed, such as the Order of the Garter, Order of St. Michael, all these medals, which became a status symbol, leading to officials proudly displaying their array of orders like a peacock, "the accoutrements of hierarchical display and imperial ostentation."And thus did imperialism and classism, seen as one interconnected world, lead to ornamentalism, defined as "hierarchy made visible, immanent, and actual. Small wonder that was the w

A nice perspective of the British Empire

This book presents a clear and concise perspective of the British empire. Not only does the author give a good general overview of this huge topic, but his views are clear and to the point. The empire meant different things to different people. What the author has tried to show is that the British did not base their empire on race, but class. An important distinction which balances many of the anti-empire racial perspectives that politically correct historians have been so fond of pointing out recently. Cannadine agrees that there was a racial element for sure, but that class hierarchy and ceremony were the predomenent factors involved. Seen in this way we get a much different idea of what the Empire was to different people. It is less a Black and White view which may not be popular to those who like to see things in more simplistic terms. Still, a nice read, with clear and concise writing. It will deffinitely stimulate your thoughts on the topic.

Elegy for Empire

David Cannadine has added another well written volume to his studies of the British aristocracy, the British class system in general, and other related topics. Ornamentalism covers the British attitudes towards their Empire during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Cannadine argues that the British took a hierarchical view of their empire, ruling it on the basis of what they supposed to be traditional English government, which devolved from the monarch to the local nobility and gentry. In the empire colonial governments made use of local grandees, such as the numerous Indian princes, so that Britain ruled not so much over them as through them. Thus Cannadine disagrees with prevailing historical opinion, that the Empire was based on race, by demonstrating its basis in existing class structureAs always, Cannadine writes clearly with few wasted words. He continues to be a master of the short biographical/historical sketch. A short but fascinating read.

An Empire where class trumps race

David Cannadine, a self declared "Child of Empire" has what can only be described as an obsession with the British Aristocracy. Unlike some of his other works such as "Decline and fall oft the British Aristocracy" where he allows bittersweet emotions such as nostalgia to be evoked at the passing of an era, or the undisguised glee of an outsider indulging in schadenfreude in "Aspects of Aristocracy: grandeur or decline" this book presents a much more balanced analysis. His thesis is that there was a complex interplay of class and race in the Empire, but in most cases class trumps race. The defining example from the book is an exerpt from the "Raj quartet" where the british aristo identifies more clearly with his Indian counterpart who went to public school than to the uncouth white police constable. However the police constable viewed himself as superior to the Indian because of his race. Its thesis accords well with my experience in public school at Winchester College in England where I felt accepted as a peer despite being Asian. But my same peers were openly disdainful of poor uneducated Pakistani and Bangledeshi immigrants. (They welcomed the educated Indians much more easily)Perhaps these sentiments were what prevented mass support for Oswald Mosley and Fascism in the 1930s despite prevalent anti-semitism. It has been argued by John Lucas that Nazism as an ideology failed because Hitler had made his elite too small. The British extended their elites to the sultans, nawabs, emirs and kings all over the Empire and used them to bind the Empire together. This book provides an interesting contrast to America where race is so much more important. Black and white interracial marriages are quite commonplace in Britain. In my opinion it better to recognize nobility in another person and disdain the baseness in another person regardless of the colour of their skin.