Victorian Visions of Global Order

This wide-ranging and original study provides an insight into the climate of political thought during the lifespan of what was, at this time, the most powerful empire in history. A distinguished group of contributors explores the way in which thinkers in Britain theorised influential views about empire and international relations, exploring topics such as the evolution of international law; the ways in which the world was notionally divided into the ‘civilised’ and the ‘barbarian’; the role of India in shaping visions of civil society; grandiose ideas about a global imperial state; the development of an array of radical critiques of empire; the varieties of liberal imperialism; and the rise and fall of free trade. Together, the chapters form an analysis of political thought in this context; both of the famous (Bentham, Mill, Marx, and Hobson) and of those who, whilst influential at the time, are all but forgotten today.

• The first book to explore the rich variety of Victorian ideals about empire and imperialism • A wide-ranging study that covers an array of different thinkers and political perspectives • Will appeal to a variety of scholarly audiences: history, political theory, and international relations

1. Introduction Duncan Bell; 2. Free trade and global order: the rise and fall of a Victorian vision Anthony Howe; 3. The foundations of Victorian international law Casper Sylvest; 4. Boundaries of Victorian international law Jennifer Pitts; 5. ‘A legislating empire’: Victorian political theorists, codes of law, and empire Sandra Den Otter; 6. The crisis of liberal imperialism Karuna Mantena; 7. ‘Great’ versus ‘small’ nations: scale and national greatness in Victorian political thought Georgios Varouxakis; 8. The Victorian idea of a global state Duncan Bell; 9. Radicalism and the extra-European-world: the case of Marx Gareth Stedman Jones; 10. Radicalism, Gladstone, and the liberal critique of Disraelian ‘imperialism’ Peter Cain; 11. The ‘left’ and the critique of empire c. 1865–1900: three roots of humanitarian foreign policy Gregory Claeys; 12. Consequentialist cosmopolitanism David Weinstein.