1st Edition
Harriet Martineau, Victorian Imperialism, and the Civilizing Mission
By Deborah A. Logan
Copyright 2009
294 Pages
by
Routledge
294 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
In her in-depth study of Harriet Martineau's writings on the evolution of the British Empire in the nineteenth century, Deborah A. Logan elaborates the ways in which Martineau's works reflect Victorian concerns about radically shifting social ideologies. To understand Martineau's interventions into the Empire Question, Logan argues, is to recognize her authority as an insightful political... Read more
Prologue; 1: The Empire Question: War and Peace; 2: The Irish Question: “that most quarrelsome country”; 3: Sugar, Spice, and the Slavery Question: West Indies, South Seas Islands, and East Indies; 4: The India Question: “that remote, and odd, and troublesome settlement”; 5: The Far East Question: “a national disgrace.” South Asia, Eastern Archipelago, China, Japan; 6: The Near East Question: Egypt and the Passage to India; 7: The Scramble for Africa Question: “that impracticable country”; 8: Epilogue
Biography
Deborah A. Logan is professor of English at Western Kentucky University, where she teaches Victorian Literature and Culture. She is editor of The Victorian Newsletter.
'Superbly written and breathtaking in its scope and coverage, Deborah A. Logan's study is a fair and evenhanded treatment of Harriet Martineau's writings on empire.' Maria Frawley, George Washington University, USA 'As a guide to an important writer's thinking and writing on imperialism and its relation to a "civilizing mission," Logan's work is invaluable. She maps the historically specific construction (and interplay) of racist, nonracist, imperialist, and progressive thinking through the vastness of Martineau's oeuvre with frankness and clarity. ... I applaud Logan's insistence on looking at these racist and gender stereotypes up close, to investigate their operations and range, and her refusal to be satisfied with labels.' Journal of British Studies 'Logan approaches her newest work with a clear and intimate knowledge of her subject... It is with extreme care and affection that she describes Martineau’s character, background and ambitions and her prose is filled and formed by a continuing sense of exceptionality.' Britain and the World
