Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850A Palladian mansion filled with Western art in the center of old Calcutta, the Mughal emperor’s letters in an archive in the French Alps, the names of Italian adventurers scratched into the walls of Egyptian temples. In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff delves into the stories behind vestiges such as these to uncover the lives of people, collectors in India and Egypt, who lived on the frontiers of the British Empire during a pivotal century of its formation. From household names like Clive of India and Napoleon Bonaparte to little-known figures such as the circus strongman Giambattista Belzoni or the Swiss mercenary Antoine Polier, Edge of Empire traces the exploits of collectors to tell an intimate history of imperialism. Jasanoff delves beneath the grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance to look at the British Empire through the eyes of the people caught up in it. What does empire look like from the inside out? Written and researched on four continents, Edge of Empire makes an original and significant contribution to international history. Jasanoff offers a fresh account of European imperialism that challenges received wisdom about how imperial power was asserted in Asia and the Middle East. She shows us that Britain’s expansion involved more than the mere imposition of an “imperial project” over foreign subjects, and that the stereotypical “white man’s burden” ideology emerged only after long years of cross-cultural encounters. Edge of Empire enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, and identified with one another in ways richer and more complex than previous accounts have led us to believe were possible. And as this book demonstrates, traces of that world remain tangible–and topical–today. An innovative, persuasive, and provocative work of history. |
Contents
A World of Empires an Empire of the World | 3 |
CONQUESTS | 17 |
II | 23 |
Copyright | |
31 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 Maya Jasanoff Limited preview - 2006 |
Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850 Maya Jasanoff Limited preview - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
Alexandria Anglo-French Antoine Polier Arabic aristocrat army Asaf ud-Daula Awadh battle Belzoni Bengal Benoît de Boigne Bernardino Drovetti Boigne's Britain Britain and France British Empire British imperial British Museum Britons Burton Cairo Calcutta Cambridge century Champollion Claude Martin collection collectors colonies command conquest consul cultural Delhi Description de l'Égypte Drovetti East India Company Edward Egyptian antiquities English Europe European expansion Fonds de Boigne France friends Haidar Henry Salt Hindu June king l'Égypte later letter lived Llewellyn-Jones London Lord Lucknow manuscripts military Mountnorris Mughal Muhammad Muslim Mysore Napoleon nawab Nile numbers obelisk objects officers OIOC Oriental Ottoman Oxford paintings palace Papers Paris pasha Persian Plassey political quoted Richard Wellesley Robert Clive Robert Hay rulers Salt's savants sepoys Seringapatam Seven Years War soldiers temple Tiger tion Tipu Sultan Tipu's tomb traveled troops University Press Valentia victory vols William wrote young