Taming the Imperial Imagination: Colonial Knowledge, International Relations, and the Anglo-Afghan Encounter, 1808-1878

ISBN-13: 9781107542679 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 350 str.

Martin J. Bayly

Opis

A new perspective on empire, international relations and foreign policy through attention to British colonial knowledge on Afghanistan from 1808 to 1878.

Recenzje

'This is no ordinary book about British colonial-era engagement with Afghanistan. In fact, it is as far removed from orthodox military histories of the Anglo-Afghan experience as it is possible to be. More than anything it chooses to intellectualise the subject in an uncommon fashion and in the process delivers an entirely refreshing approach to what is in danger of becoming a tired and unimaginative field of study. … It is as much a book about the present as it is about the past, and for that reason is a must-read for anyone interested in the formulation of foreign policy and military strategy with respect to those dark corners of our world that stoke the fears of Western imagination.' Christian Tripodi, International Journal of Military and Historiography

Spis treści

Introduction; Part I. Knowledge: 1. Early European explorers of Afghanistan; 2. Knowledge entrepreneurs; Part II. Policy: 3. 'Information … information': Anglo-Afghan relations in the 1830s; 4. Contestation and closure: rationalising the Afghan polity; Part III. Exception: 5. The emergence of a violent geography, 1842–53; 6. Overcoming exception, 1853–7; 7. 'Science' and sentiment: the era of frontier management, 1857–78; Conclusion.