This book examines the response of British policy-makers to the collapse of belief in racial superiority, and with it the ideological basis of empire, following the fall of Singapore in 1942. The book studies the Anglo-American debate in which British officials, led by Lord Hailey, countered American criticisms of imperial rule by emphasizing economic development and peace-keeping as new, non-racial justifications for western authority. These are themes that have retained a powerful resonance on the post-war world.

The book studies the Anglo-American debate in which British officials led by Lord Hailey, countered American criticisms of imperial rule by emphasizing economic development and peace-keeping as new, non-racial justifications for western authority. These are themes that have retained a powerful resonance in the post-war world.

Fashionable new theories tend to reject universal reason in favour of pluralism and locality. Marxism, Mysticism and Modern Theory examines some of these theories and argues that they are the mystified expression of the current political and economic impasse. Today's relativistic outlook reveals a minimalist and atomized viewpoint - a retreat from the goal of rational understanding. Marxism, Mysticism and Modern Theory sets out, in this critique, the case for developing a new humanism to extend rationality.