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Reconstructing British Imperialism: The Autobiography of a Research Project1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

P.J. Cain  and
A.G. Hopkins
P.J. Cain
Affiliation:
(University of Cambridge)
A.G. Hopkins
Affiliation:
(University of Cambridge)
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Extract

Our joint work, like so much else in life, had its origin in an accident of fate. It would never have seen the light of day, at least in its published forms, had it not been for the chance that the authors both came to the University of Birmingham in the mid-1960s, from different backgrounds and with different interests, and then found that, by the mid-1970s, their research interests had converged to the point where co-operative work began to appear both logical and feasible. At that moment, like countless other scholars in all branches of research, we did not have a clear idea of what we were embarking on or, of course, how long it would take. But we made a conscious decision, at a time when we had built up a considerable amount of intellectual capital, to attack one of the big problems of modern history, namely the causes of imperial expansion, and to take a chance on the outcome.

Type
Historiography of Modern Imperialism
Information
Itinerario , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 95 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1994

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References

Notes

2 Hopkins, A.G., An Economic History of West Africa (London 1973).Google Scholar

3 Robinson, R.E. and Gallagher, J. with Denny, Alice, Africa and the Victorians: The Official Mind of Imperialism (London 1961).Google Scholar

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5 Hopkins, Economic History, Ch. 4. This argument is the subject of a collection of essays edited by Law, Robin, Economic Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa (Cambridge 1995).Google Scholar

6 Hopkins, A.G., ‘Imperial Business in Africa, Part I: Sources’, Journal of African History XVIII (1976), 29–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Imperial Business in Africa, Part II: Interpretations', ibid. 269–290.

7 Platt, D.C.M., ‘British Policy during the New Imperialism’, Past and Present 39 (1968) 120–138Google Scholar; idem, Finance, Trade, and Politics in British Foreign Policy (Oxford 1968).Google Scholar

8 Cain, P.J., ‘International Trade and Economic Developments in the Thought of J.A. Hobson before 1914’, History of Political Economy XI (1979) 404–424.Google Scholar

9 Stokes, Eric, ‘Late Nineteenth-Century Colonial Expansion and the Attack on the Theory of Economic Imperialism: A Case of Mistaken Identity?’, Historical Journal XII (1969) 285–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Cain, P.J., ‘Capitalism, War and Internationalism in the Thought of Richard Cobden’, British Journal of International Studies 5 (1979) 229–247Google Scholar; idem, ‘Political Economy in Edwardian England: The Tariff Reform Controversy’, in: O'Day, Alan ed., The Edwardian Age; Conflict and Stability, 1900–1914 (London 1979) 35–59.Google Scholar

11 Cain, P.J., Economic Foundations of British Imperial Expansion Overseas, 1815–1914 (London 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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20 This involved, among other things, a reconsideration of the works of Max Weber, which had become highly stereotyped in standard accounts of ‘traditional’ societies. See Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G., British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914 (London 1993) 25.Google Scholar

21 Representative references can be found in Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 20.

22 Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G., ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Overseas Expansion, I: The Old colonial System, 1688–1850’, Economic History Review XXXIX (1986) 501–525CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Expansion Overseas, II: New Imperialism, 1850–1945, in Ibidem XL (1987) 1–27.

23 One case study was completed at the time the articles were written: Hopkins, A.G., ‘The Victorians and Africa: A Reconsideration of the Occupation of Egypt, 1882’, Journal of African History 27 (1986) 363–391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 See, for example, Daunton, Martin, ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and British Industry’ Past and Present 122 (1989) 119–158Google Scholar; Bowen, Huw, ‘East India Stockholding, 1756–1791’, Economic History Review XLII (1989) 186–206Google Scholar; Porter, Andrew, ‘Gentlemanly Capitalism and the empire: The British Experience since 1750’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History XVIII (1990) 265–195Google Scholar; Chapman, Stanley, Merchant Enterprise: From the Industrial Revolution to World War One (Cambridge 1991)Google Scholar; Ward, J.W., ‘The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750–1850’, Economic History Review XLVII (1994) 44–65Google Scholar. See also the debate between Daunton, and Rubinstein, in Past and Present 132 (1991) 150–187.Google Scholar

25 Cain, P.J. and Hopkins, A.G., British Imperialism; Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914; and British Imperialism; Crisis and Deconstruction, 1914–1990 (London 1993).Google Scholar

26 It will be interesting to see how far the increased pressure of work, including administration, that now typifies British universities will deter younger scholars from taking on large, long-term research projects. We have often wondered how our own slow progress would have fared had it been judged by the more demanding criteria applied to academic performance, especially publication rates, today. Evidendy, there is a potential problem: if academic ‘short-termism’ prevails, how are the big issues going to be treated in future, assuming that they are going to be treated seriously?