Imperial Sceptics: British Critics of Empire, 1850-1920

Imperial Sceptics provides a highly original analysis of the emergence of opposition to the British empire from 1850 to 1920. Departing from existing accounts, which have focussed upon the Boer War and the writings of J.A. Hobson, the book proposes a new chronology for the emergence of resistance to imperial expansion. It locates the impetus for such opposition in the late 1850s with the British followers of Auguste Comte. These currents are then traced through the emergence of the socialist movement in the 1880s, when a new conception of "socialist imperialism" emerged, besides resistance to all imperialism in principle. The book also treats related issues of nationalism, patriotism, attitudes towards the state, and religion.