Description

Through his teaching in the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the late Professor Jack Gallagher was a major influence on a generation of readers, writers and students of empire. His reinterpretation of the nature of British imperialism, most notably in Africa and the Victorians (written with Ronald Robinson), stimulated much debate. Gallagher’s interest as a historian of imperialism lay first in Africa and later in India.To the modern understanding of the nature and operation of imperialism and
colonial nationalism in both these regions,his contribution has been revolutionary. By the early 1970s Gallagher developed his analysis of causes of the rise and decline of empires, and presented these in his Ford Lectures, published here for the first time. He argued that imperialism still deserved to
be studied as an entity, if not a unity.However incomponent their management, all systems of influence or rule fitted into a construct of national interests.For a century and a half India had underpinned the British world system in the eastern seas, and Gallagher saw India as a leading case for testing his ideas.He emphasized the local circumstances overseas which either encouraged or obstructed the workings of European expansion. Gallagher’s lectures on ‘The decline revival and fall of the British Empire empire’ discussed the opposition to empire at home as well as in the colonies. He observed that even in the heyday of empire,anti-imperialism as an intellectual Vogue was mostly an attack on particular ways of running an empire, rather than on the empire itself. He further asked what really brought about the fall of the empire.In the present volume Gallagher’s pupil and colleague Dr.bAnil Sen has edited for Publication a group of major essays: the unpublished Ford Lectures,together with related papers on Africa India and imperialism characteristic of his work.This collection will be of value to those concerned with the history of empire through what Gallagher saw as its decline, it’s subsequent rise and its eventual administrative fall.