Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire
Imperialism, Cannadine argues, was a vehicle that enabled the  British to replicate and export their own "hierarchical social  structure" to their colonies. This need was especially pressing  as industrialism changed the social order in their own country.  In some undeveloped nations, such as Canada, Australia, and New  Zealand, the Britons could start to build this stratified  society from scratch. In other regions, such as India, Africa,  and the Far East, they simply worked to preserve the already  established order, such as the "caste-based indigenous Indian  society" and the rule of the "Malayan sultans and African  Kings." Cannadine stresses that the British system was not about  race but about class and status. The British viewed most of  their own people as far beneath these foreign chiefs, sultans,  and pashas. Inevitably, though, the dominions became  increasingly unimpressed by the pomp, ceremony, and British  authority, and as nationalism grew stronger, all vestiges of  British rule came under attack. Often repetitive and slow, this  book reads like a university thesis, but the arguments and ideas  are insightful. Appropriate for academic or large public  libraries with British collections. Isabel Coates, Brampton,  OntarioCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.