Alibis of Empire Henry Maine and the Ends of Liberal Imperialism [Hardcover]

Alibis of Empirepresents a novel account of the origins, substance, and afterlife of late imperial ideology. Karuna Mantena challenges the idea that Victorian empire was primarily legitimated by liberal notions of progress and civilization. In fact, as the British Empire gained its farthest reach, its ideology was being dramatically transformed by a self-conscious rejection of the liberal model. The collapse of liberal imperialism enabled a new culturalism that stressed the dangers and difficulties of trying to civilize native peoples. And, hand in hand with this shift in thinking was a shift in practice toward models of indirect rule. As Mantena shows, the work of Victorian legal scholar Henry Maine was at the center of these momentous changes.Alibis of Empireexamines how Maine's sociotheoretic model of traditional society laid the groundwork for the culturalist logic of late empire. In charting the movement from liberal idealism, through culturalist explanation, to retroactive alibi within nineteenth-century British imperial ideology,Alibis of Empireunearths a striking and pervasive dynamic of modern empire.

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010"Karuna Mantenais assistant professor of political science at Yale University. Mantena carefully situates [Henry] Maine in political debates of the Britain of his time. Her study features excellent accounts of the luminaries of liberal imperialism and their critics before turning to the writings of Maine, particularly his analysis of 'traditional societies' and the implications of that analysis for the revision of imperial law codes and for a new treatment of property. . . . [A] striking debut. It is Mantena's earnest engagement with the question of a liberal empire's invariable ends that will appeal to a set of readers well beyond the circle of political theorists, intellectual historians, and students of the British empire who are the target audielƒ+