Victorian Visions of Global Order: Empire and International Relations in Nineteenth-Century Political Thought (Ideas in Context, Series Number 86)

This wide-ranging and original 2007 study provides an insight into the climate of political thought during the lifespan of what was, at this time, the most powerful empire in history. A distinguished group of contributors explores the way in which thinkers in Britain theorised influential views about empire and international relations, exploring topics such as the evolution of international law; the ways in which the world was notionally divided into the 'civilised' and the 'barbarian'; the role of India in shaping visions of civil society; grandiose ideas about a global imperial state; the development of an array of radical critiques of empire; the varieties of liberal imperialism; and the rise and fall of free trade. Together, the chapters form an analysis of political thought in this context; both of the famous (Bentham, Mill, Marx, and Hobson) and of those who, whilst influential at the time, are all but forgotten today. Victorian Visions Of Global Order : An Introduction / Duncan Bell -- Free Trade And Global Order : The Rise And Fall Of A Victorian Vision / Anthony Howe -- The Foundations Of Victorian International Law / Casper Sylvest -- Boundaries Of Victorian International Law / Jennifer Pitts -- 'a Legislating Empire' : Victorian Political Theorists, Codes Of Law, And Empire / Sandra Den Otter -- The Crisis Of Liberal Imperialism / Karuna Mantena -- 'great' Versus 'small' Nations : Scale And National Greatness In Victorian Political Thought / Georgios Varouxakis -- The Victorian Idea Of A Global State / Duncan Bell -- Radicalism And The Extra-european World : The Case Of Karl Marx / Gareth Stedman Jones -- Radicalism, Gladstone, And The Liberal Critique Of Disraelian 'imperialism' / Peter Cain -- The 'left' And The Critique Of Empire C. 1865-1900 : Three Roots Of Humanitarian Foreign Policy / Gregory Claeys -- Consequentialist Cosmopolitanism / David Weinstein. Edited By Duncan Bell. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. An insight into the climate of political thought surrounding the most powerful empire in history