“Yet imperialism did not have to pay to be popular. For many people it was sufficient that it was exciting.” (p. 211)
Empire: the rise and demise of the British world order and the lessons for global power is by Niall Ferguson who teaches at NYU and Oxford. I read the book right after Confusion by Stephenson, and it makes a good companion since Empire provides a well written tour of the birth and evolution of the British Empire that maps to the themes of Confusion. The Empire was born in piracy, benefited from slavery (which made possible the exploding taste for sugar), survived by evolving sophisticated economic (monetary) and bureaucratic systems, and staid popular at home by developing global communication systems. The Empire didn’t benefit the brits (except for those who emigrated), it entertained them. I should reread Innis Empire and Communications which is one of the first of the works to develop ideas about information technology determinism – the so called Toronto School. (McLuhan was Innis’ student.)
Stephenson is weaving (con-fusing) entertainment out of the birth of the British Empire. What he leaves out is the taste for sugar.
The hook of Ferguson’s book is the possibility that we can learn lessons from the British Empire that apply to American hegemony. Of course, it isn’t that simple, and Ferguson is honest enough to say so. I can’t help thinking that the Spanish Empire might be more relevant as the Spanish (and French), like Americans didn’t colonize through heavy emmigration. The Brits, starting with Ireland, tried to “settle” colonies with citizens. This gave many of those colonies their distinctive flavor – belief in freedom, rights, and balanced democracy. The American Empire (if one can call it that) is also mostly in the Americas where the US took over control from the Spanish (and Portuguese.) The US is not settling countries, but trying to integrate them into a global economic system. Above all, the American Empire is for entertainment, which is why it doesn’t have the stomach for distressing television as it got in Vietnam and is now getting in Iraq.
Some other stuff on Empire and Ferguson:
Robert Fulford’s series about Niall Ferguson is a long, three part essay/interview with Ferguson that appeared in the National Post. Fulford (and the National Post) obviously like Ferguson’s “radical Tory” stance that calls for more, not less American intervention.
Foreign Affairs – Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order – G. John Ikenberry
Foreign Affairs – Hegemony or Empire? – Niall Ferguson
Comments are closed.