The perversion of empire
Edmund burke and the nature of imperial responsibility
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9237392 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeff D Bass (Baylor University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 208-227 |
| Publication date | 1995-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00335639509384109 |
| OpenAlex | W2005117400 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 20 |
Professions by British politicians of their nation's responsibility or obligation to provide “just” rule for foreign peoples have long been characterized by critics of the British Empire as being little more than hypocritical ploys intended to obfuscate the “true” economic and racist motivations for nineteenth‐century imperialism. But such criticisms, while undoubtedly accurate in many cases, do not account for the British public's acceptance of the ideal of imperial responsibility as a political necessity. This essay proposes an alternative interpretation of imperial responsibility founded upon Edmund Burke's rhetorical denunciation of the East India Company in 1783. By ironically foregrounding the classical justification for empire in order to indict the Company's policies in India, Burke essentially constructed a new understanding of imperial responsibility in which the need to protect foreign peoples from unscrupulous Britons was stressed instead of any sense of racial superiority or paternalism. This understanding continued to influence British conceptions of imperial responsibility throughout the nineteenth century
Denunciation · Empire · Imperial unit system · Obligation · Paternalism · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Australian History and Society · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Law · Philosophy
The Imperial Idea and its Enemies
The Rhetoric of English India
Africa and the Victorians
The Imperial Frontier in the Tropics, 1865-75
The East India Company in Eighteenth-Century Politics
Imperialism
Foregrounding norms and ironic communication
The rhetoric of Burke's select committee reports
The Missionary Factor in East Africa
Kirk on the Zambesi
The Imperialism of Free Trade
King George III and the Politicians
His Majesty's Opposition, 1714-1830
The East India Company in Eighteenth-Century Politics
The Political Unconscious
The 'Turbulent Frontier' as a Factor in British Expansion
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,21 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2017 (16) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |