Dreamworlds of Race : Empire and the Utopian Destiny of Anglo-America

**How transatlantic thinkers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries promoted the unification of Britain and the United States** Between the late nineteenth century and the First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominent individuals advocated the unification of Britain and the United States. They dreamt of the final consolidation of the Angloworld. Scholars, journalists, politicians, businessmen, and science fiction writers invested the “Anglo-Saxons” with extraordinary power. The most ambitious hailed them as a people destined to bring peace and justice to the earth. More modest visions still imagined them as likely to shape the twentieth century. __Dreamworlds of Race__ explores this remarkable moment in the intellectual history of racial domination, political utopianism, and world order. Focusing on a quartet of extraordinary figures—Andrew Carnegie, W. T. Stead, Cecil J. Rhodes, and H. G. Wells—Duncan Bell shows how unionists on both sides of the Atlantic reimagined citizenship, empire, patriotism, race, war, and peace in their quest to secure global supremacy. Yet even as they dreamt of an Anglo-dominated world, the unionists disagreed over the meaning of race, the legitimacy of imperialism, the nature of political belonging, and the ultimate form and purpose of unification. The racial dreamworld was an object of competing claims and fantasies. Exploring speculative fiction as well as more conventional forms of political writing, Bell reads unionist arguments as expressions of the utopianism circulating through fin-de-siècle Anglo-American culture, and juxtaposes them with pan-Africanist critiques of racial domination and late twentieth-century fictional narratives of Anglo-American empire. Tracing how intellectual elites promoted an ambitious project of political and racial unification between Britain and the United States, __Dreamworlds of Race__ analyzes ideas of empire and world order that reverberate to this day. Cover Contents Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Dreamworlds of Race Axes of the Angloworld The Shape of Things to Come: Empire, War, Racial Union Anglotopia: Racial Futurism and the Power of Dreams Biocultural Assemblage: A Note on Race Cyborg Imperium: Racial Informatics, Infrastructural Space 2. The Dreamer of Dreams: Andrew Carnegie and the Reunion of the Race Introduction Anglo-America and the Logic of Historical Progress The True Philosophy of History: Methodological Racialism and the Germanic Element Contesting Carnegie The Vortex of Militarism: Empire, Race, International Law Racial Providence: The Political Theology of Unity Onward and Upward: And Some Day All under One Government 3. Americanizing the World: W. T. Stead and Cecil J. Rhodes Introduction English-Speaking Man and the Economy of the Universe The Great Social Nexus: Global Governance by Journalism A Kind of Human Flux: Stead’s Racial Utopia Star Gazer: Rhodes and the English-Speaking World The Grey Archangel: Americanizing Rhodes 4. Artists in Reality: H. G. Wells and the New Republic Introduction In the Beginning of a New Time: The Larger Synthesis Evolutionary Theory and the Transformation of Philosophy The Fluctuating World of Men: On Race and Language Civilizer-General: The United States and Imperial Destiny 5. Machine Dreams: The Angloworld as Science Fiction Welcome to the Machine Wars of the World From Imperial Federation to Anglotopia Murder by Machinery: On Peace through War Argosies of Magic Sails: The Nemesis of Cosmic Empire 6. Beyond the Sovereign State: Isopolitan Citizenship and Race Patriotism Introduction Remaking Citizenship: Race, Empire, Isopolity Dicey on Isopolitan Citizenship Dwelling Together in Unity: Isopolitan Citizenship and Beyond Fractal Loyalty and Love: On Race Patriotism Political Symbolism and the Racial Mythscape 7. A Messenger of Peace to the World: Racial Utopianism and the Abolition of War Prologue: On Democratic Peace Defeating the Engineries of Death: Variations on a Pacific Theme Pax Anglo-Saxonia? Democracy, War, Empire The Anglotopian Dream: Ending the Murder of Men by Men A Peace Such as the World Had Ever Known 8. Conclusion: Unveiling the Sphinx Futures Past / Past Futures Ghosts of Empire: Steampunk Geopolitics Peoples Irreverent toward Time: Afro-modernism contra White Supremacy Bibliography Index "Between the late nineteenth century and the outbreak of the First World War, many prominent thinkers in Britain and the United States elaborated a vision for the unification of the English-speaking world into a single political entity. The basis for this utopian thinking was a shared assumption about the racial and cultural exceptionalism of the Anglo-Saxon peoples. This book by Duncan Bell is the first study of the wide range of figures - prominent scholars, journalists, novelists, politicians and businessmen - who pushed for closer co-operation and integration between the two transatlantic anglophone powers and even for the eventual creation of an 'Angloworld' which would extend to the British settler colonies in North America and the Pacific. Such ideas were given added impetus by geopolitical crises, including the Venezuela boundary disputes of the mid-1890s and the imperial wars in South Africa and the Philippines. The author takes up the ideas of dozens of thinkers on both sides of the Atlantic, from the celebrated to the obscure, though central to the book is a quartet of noteworthy figures: Andrew Carnegie, W. T. Stead, Cecil J. Rhodes, and H. G. Wells. Campaigning groups were established; transatlantic networks were formed; articles, pamphlets, books and speeches were written and disseminated - all with the aim of emphasising unity. Proposals for institutionalising transatlantic links ranged from the modest to the extraordinarily bold. The former included strengthening defence co-operation, deepening economic connections, and co-ordinating imperial strategy, while the latter encompassed plans for the creation of novel forms of political community, even a single transatlantic state. And much of the thinking was underpinned by ideas about race and a shared Anglo-Saxon cultural inheritance. Although the popularity of this vision began to wane in the mid-Edwardian era, versions of it reverberated through the twentieth century, and echo now into the present"-- Provided by publisher

How transatlantic thinkers in the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries promoted the unification of Britain andthe United States Between the late nineteenth century andthe First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominentindividuals advocated the unification of Britain and the UnitedStates. They dreamt of the final consolidation of the Angloworld.Scholars, journalists, politicians, businessmen, and sciencefiction writers invested the "Anglo-Saxons" with extraordinarypower. The most ambitious hailed them as a people destined to bringpeace and justice to the earth. More modest visions still imaginedthem as likely to shape the twentieth century. Dreamworlds ofRace explores this remarkable moment in the intellectualhistory of racial domination, political utopianism, and worldorder. Focusing on a quartet of extraordinary figures-AndrewCarnegie, W. T. Stead, Cecil J. Rhodes, and H. G. Wells-Duncan Bellshows how unionists on both sides of the Atlantic reimaginedcitizenship, empire, patriotism, race, war, and peace in theirquest to secure global supremacy. Yet even as they dreamt of anAnglo-dominated world, the unionists disagreed over the meaning ofrace, the legitimacy of imperialism, the nature of politicalbelonging, and the ultimate form and purpose of unification. Theracial dreamworld was an object of competing claims and fantasies.Exploring speculative fiction as well as more conventional forms ofpolitical writing, Bell reads unionist arguments as expressions ofthe utopianism circulating through fin-de-siècle Anglo-Americanculture, and juxtaposes them with pan-Africanist critiques ofracial domination and late twentieth-century fictional narrativesof Anglo-American empire. Tracing how intellectual elites promotedan ambitious project of political and racial unification betweenBritain and the United States, Dreamworlds of Raceanalyzes ideas of empire and world order that reverberate to thisday.

Between the late nineteenth century and the First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominent individuals advocated the unification of Britain and the United States. They dreamt of the final consolidation of the Angloworld. Scholars, journalists, politicians, businessmen, and science fiction writers invested the 'Anglo-Saxons' with extraordinary power. The most ambitious hailed them as a people destined to bring peace and justice to the earth. More modest visions still imagined them as likely to shape the twentieth century. This book explores this remarkable moment in the intellectual history of racial domination, political utopianism, and world order.