Harvey Kaye - Imperialism and its Contradictions

AND ITS CONTRADICTIONS

V. G. Kiernan

edited & introduced by HARVEY J. K AYE

First published 1995 by Routledge

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kiernan, V. G. (Victor Gordon), 1913-

Imperialism and its contradictions / V.G. Kiernan ; edited and introduced by Harvey J. Kaye.

p. cm. (American radicals)

Collection of previously published essays.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-415-90796-9 (acid-free paper). ISBN 0-415-90797-7 (acid-free paper) 1. Imperialism. 2. Colonies. I. Kaye, Harvey J. II. Title. III. Series.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data also available.

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent.

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-90797-2 (pbk)

This is the third in a series of volumes of Victor Kiernans essays which I have had the honor to edit and introduce. The first, History, Classes, and Nation-States (1988), brought together his best articles on early-modern and modern European history, and the second, Poets, Politics, and the People (1989), brought together a selection of his most important writings in British historical and literary studies. Beyond the present work there are two additional volumes to be prepared for publication, Intellectuals in History and Britons Old and New.

As impressive and significant as are his books and articles on specifically British and European subjects, Kiernans major contributions and fame as a scholar are probably based on his efforts in international and world history, that is, his pioneering work on imperialism and colonialism. As I relate in the introductory remarks which follow, Kiernans studies of European (and American) expansionism have regularly opened up new areas to investigation and consideration. Moreover, Kiernans writings are extraordinarily diverse in historical and geographical range and, as a consequence, of the three volumes on which I have worked thus far, the contents of the present one were really the most difficult to determine because the possibilities were so numerous. In the end, I chose to limit the collection to the modern European imperial experience, thereby eliminating pieces on ancient history and on both the United States and Latin America. At the same time, the selection of chapters still registers the thematic range of Kiernans work, including political-economic, military, social, and cultural studies. Though I am not always in agreement with the arguments presented, I feel strongly that they must be attended to.

Even in the making of edited volumes such as this, there are many people to acknowledge. For allowing us to reprint articles which originally appeared in their publications, I thank the Center for Development Studies at the University College of Wales in Swansea, Macmillan Press, Cambridge University Press, and the editors of New Left Review, History of European Ideas, and New Edinburgh Review (the particular references are noted at the outset of each chapters notes).

Friends and colleagues near and far who in varied (and sometimes unknowing) ways contributed to this project are Christopher Hill, Ron Baba, Craig Lockard, Tony Galt, Lynn Walter, Lisa Barlow, Larry Smith, Ellen Wood, Terry Brotherstone, Frank Furedi, David Jowett, Ron Sexton, Stephanie Cataldo, Heather Kiernan and, at the publishers, Maura Burnett, Claudia Gorelick and Ray Walker.

Especially, I want to acknowledge my incomparable editor and friend at Routledge in New York, Cecelia Cancellaro. Smart and enthusiastic, in an age of corporate priorities she makes publishing not only a valuable and worthwhile professional and intellectual experience but culturally significant and great fun.

As ever, my family, Rhiannon and Fiona and especially, my wife, Lorna, make it all come together. Its not just their patience but their participation which is essential; not to mention, while my skills are limited, theirs continue to develop and there would be no books without them.

I have stated before that in working with Victor Kiernan and his writings I feel like a student learning new things and I realize how little I actually knew before our encounter. Thank you, Victor, for assisting in my continuing education. But I also want to thank you and Heather for making my visits to Woodcroft in Stow, Scotland, so enjoyable and for your visits to Wisconsin to talk to my students on diverse topics.

Harvey J. Kaye

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

April 1994

It is not enough to know the ensemble of relations as they exist at any given time as a given system. They must be known genetically, in the movement of their formation. For each individual is the synthesis not only of existing relations, but of the history of these relations. He is a precis of all the past.