Rating: 
Summary: A nice perspective of the British Empire
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Pomp, Circumstance and the Creation of the British Empire
Review: This is a much better book than I had originally expected. It is also a much easier read than I had anticipated. It's certainly not dry-as-dust narrative history. I had first read a review of the book in History Today which suggested that Ornamentalism by David Cannadine cast a new light on the importance of rank and ceremony in binding the British empire together across the globe, especially during its peak from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. This was enough to whet my appetite. That, and an interesting reminder in the title that Edward Said had already written in his book Orientalism about the fascination that the East (Near, Middle or Far, depending on the distance from London as the epicentre) had for British empire-builders, and a suggestion that the ideological traffic of empire was more than just a one-way street. Ornamentalism certainly delivers on its promise in painting a complex cultural picture of cultural and ideological interchange between ruling hierarchies throughout the British Empire. The author shows how this order was identifed and then explicitly sustained through mechanisms such as the British peerage system (think about all those thousands of OBEs). Cannadine also shows how order abroad confirmed and upheld order at home. This "Burkean" view of society bolstered (even upholstered) the fortunes of conservative British politicians from Disraeli to Churchill. As this world view dissolved through the twentieth century, so did British support for carefully constructed local elites overseas. In my own country, small conservative New Zealand, attachment to the Mother Country died hard. British titles were only abolished in New Zealand in 2000. Ornamentalism argues its own corner. It doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive history of the British Empire (go to the Cambridge History series for that). But it is an enjoyable read, and provided (at least for me) a different, richer way of thinking about empire. The book is also entertaining (some great anecdotes of the Raj in India); insightful (nice distinctions between the different experiences of the Dominions, the Colonies and the Mandates); idiosyncratic (the author provides a personal perspective of empire in an unexpected epilogue); and credible (check out the great notes/bibliography). If you are even vaguely interested in the British Empire, Britain in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or your own country belongs to that odd international club called the British Commonwealth,do yourself a favour and read this book. You'll enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: An unbiased look at how class was the engine for Empire.
Review: 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 way the ordinary British citizen related to the world. Abroad, "they saw what they were conditioned, what they wanted, and what they expected to see." In the end, it was nationalism, attacks from the urban, intellectual, and middle classes, technology, and the perception that hierarchy was unchanging that brought down the empire. Cannadine doesn't take the neo-conservative, imperial apologist position, nor does he take the post-colonial and post-modern perspective in writing this book. Rather, he neither defends nor criticizes it, but tells the facts plain and simple, using the "entire interactive system" approach and giving a wider perspective of what the Empire looked like. He succeeds in breaking new ground, away from the ancient master narratives, by addressing the issue of class and hierarchy.
Rating:
Summary: An unbiased look at how class was the engine for Empire.
Review: 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 way the ordinary British citizen related to the world. Abroad, "they saw what they were conditioned, what they wanted, and what they expected to see." In the end, it was nationalism, attacks from the urban, intellectual, and middle classes, technology, and the perception that hierarchy was unchanging that brought down the empire. Cannadine doesn't take the neo-conservative, imperial apologist position, nor does he take the post-colonial and post-modern perspective in writing this book. Rather, he neither defends nor criticizes it, but tells the facts plain and simple, using the "entire interactive system" approach and giving a wider perspective of what the Empire looked like. He succeeds in breaking new ground, away from the ancient master narratives, by addressing the issue of class and hierarchy.
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