Required Texts
Cook, Scott. Colonial Encounters in the Age of High Imperialism. New York, NY: Talman, 1996. ISBN: 9781886746626.
Davis, Mike. Late Victorian Holocausts. New York, NY: Verso, 2002. ISBN: 9781859843826.
Oyono, Ferdinand. Houseboy. London, UK: Heinemann, 1960, and 1991. ISBN: 9780435905323.
Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1934.
Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1956, and 1955.
Fanon, Franz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, NY: Grove Press, 1963. ISBN: 080215083.
Readings by Session
LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS |
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1 | Introduction | |
2 | The Decline of the Mercantilist Empires: From 1492 to the Early 19th Century | |
3 | Classic Theories of Imperialism | Kipling, Rudyard. "The White Man's Burden." In Verse. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1899, pp. 321-323. Rose, J. Holland. The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1900. London, UK: Constable, 1905, pp. 508-512. Hobson, John A. "Imperialism." In Imperialism: A Study. New York, NY: Harper-Collins, 1902, pp. 14-20. Lenin, V. I. "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism." In Selected Works. Moscow, Russia: Progress, 1975 (originally, 1916), pp. 36-51. Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." 1936. (A version of Orwell's essay, "Shooting an Elephant" is available from The University of Newcastle, Austrailia.) |
The Foundation of "British" India, and the Roots of a New Imperialism | ||
4 | From "John Company" to the Mutiny of 1857 |
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5 | Shifting Economic Rationales: From "Free Trade" to Opium Wars | Smith, Adam. "America and the East Indies." In Wealth of Nations. 1776.![]() |
(New) Views of Exotic Lands and Exotic "Others" | ||
6 | Charting New Terrain: Discovering "Darkest Africa" |
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7 | Ethnography and "Race Science" |
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8 | Imperial and "Civilizing" Missions |
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9 | Discussion: Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts (2002) |
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Partitioning the World | ||
10 | From the Great Game to the Scramble for Africa |
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11 | The Berlin Conference: Power-Politics and Map Fantasies |
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Violence | ||
12 | Colonial Warfare I: Conquest of Africa, Boer War, Boxer Uprising | |
13 | Genocides in the Belgian Congo and German South-West Africa |
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Empire in the Metropole | ||
14 | The Imperial Nation on Display | Corbey, Raymond. "Ethnographic Showcases, 1870-1930." Cultural Anthropology 8, no. 3 (1993): 338-369.![]() Ciarlo, David. "Consuming Race, Envisioning Empire." PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2003. (Excerpt) |
15 | Imperial Masculinities and Femininities | Judd, Denis. "Gordon Of Khartoum: The Making Of An Imperial Martyr." In History Today 35 (1985): 19-25.![]() |
Case Studies of Transformation in the Colonies | ||
16 | Hawai'i |
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17 | Discussion: Ferdinand Oyono, Houseboy |
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18 | Discussion: George Orwell, Burmese Days | Orwell, George. Burmese Days. New York, NY: Harper & brothers, 1934. |
Narratives (and Counter-Narratives) of Development | ||
19 | The First World War | |
20 | Colonial Economics and "Modernization" |
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Twilight of Empire | ||
21 | Empire in the Second World War | |
22 | A New World Order? From the Suez Crisis to Vietnam | Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1956, 1955. |
Decolonization in Asia and Africa | ||
23 | Decolonization |
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24 | Independent Nationalism of the New Elites |
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New Imperialisms? | ||
25 | The Neo-Colonialism of "Globalization"? | |
26 | The New American Empire? | Kaplan, Robert D. "Supremacy by Stealth." in The Atlantic Monthly 292, no. 1 (July/August 2003): 66-83. |
Final Exam Week |