The Expansion of England: Two Courses of LecturesCosimo, Inc., 1 de set. de 2005 - 320 páginas [T]he history of England ought to end with something that might be called a moral. Some large conclusion ought to arise out of it; it ought to exhibit the general tendency of English affairs in such a way as to set us thinking about the future and divining the destiny, which is reserved for us.-J.R. Seeley, from "Lecture 1: Tendency in English History"From this optimistic and enthusiastic starting point, the prominent historian and classical scholar launches into a fervent elevation of Britain's imperial enterprise. The empire was flourishing when he came to its defense in this, his most successful work, first published in 1883, but Seeley worried about the peculiar inattentiveness on the part of the empire's masters: "We seem to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind," Seeley frets here. With this nod of approval to what he believed was an English destiny to "civilize" the world, this work became a standard text for the new wave of liberal imperialists in 1880s Britain. Today, it is an illuminating look at a world power so enthralled to its own hubris that it could not see downfall looming.SIR JOHN ROBERT SEELEY (1834-1895) was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and an honorary member of Historical Society of Massachusetts. He is also the author of Ecce Homo. |
Conteúdo
| 1 | |
| 17 | |
LECTURE III | 37 |
LECTURE IV | 56 |
LECTURE V | 77 |
COMMERCE AND WAR | 98 |
LECTURE VII | 119 |
LECTURE VIII | 141 |
LECTURE II | 179 |
LECTURE III | 197 |
LECTURE IV | 217 |
LECTURE V | 235 |
LECTURE VI | 254 |
LECTURE VII | 273 |
LECTURE VIII | 293 |
HISTORY AND POLITICS | 163 |
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affairs Afghanistan American Revolution army beginning Brahminism Canada cause Charles II civilisation colonial Empire colonies Columbus commercial connexion conquest of India Cromwell Dutch eighteenth century emigration England and France English history Englishmen Europe European event expansion of England fact force foreign France France and England French Germany Government Greater Britain Greater France Greater Spain Greek Hindu historians Indian Empire interest invasion island Italy language LECTURE less liberty Lord Lord Wellesley maritime military millions modern Mogul Empire mother-country Mussulman Napoleon nation native natural never North America Ocean old colonial system once ourselves perhaps period Persia political population Portugal possession prosperity question race reign religion remark Revolution rival Russia seems sense settlements seventeenth century sixteenth century Spain Spanish Spanish Armada Spanish Empire struggle territory trade Treaty of Utrecht union Vasco da Gama vast wars whole World
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Página 24 - Prussia was unknown ; and, in order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America...
Página 3 - Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands,* That this most famous Stream in bogs and sands Should perish ; and to evil and to good Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung Armoury of the invincible Knights of old : We must be free or die, who speak...
Página 17 - We ought by no means to take for granted that this is desirable. Bigness is not necessarily greatness; if by remaining in the second rank of magnitude we can hold the first rank morally and intellectually, let us sacrifice mere material magnitude.
Página 3 - English history, as it is popularly related, not only has no distinct end, but leaves off in such a gradual manner, growing feebler and feebler, duller and duller, towards the close, that one might suppose that England, instead of steadily gaining in strength, had been for a century or two dying of mere old age.