Mid-Victorian Imperialists British Gentlemen and the Empire of the Mind

Throughout the nineteenth century The British Empire was the subject of much writing, floods of articles, books and government reports were produced about the areas under British control and the policy of imperialism. Mid-Victorian Imperialists investigates how Victorians made sense of all the information regarding the empire by examining the writings of a collection of gentlemen who were amongst the first people to join the Colonial Society in 1868-69. These men included imperial officials, lead settlers, British politicians and writers, and Beasely looks at the common trends in their beliefs about the British Empire and how their thoughts changed during their lives to show how Mid-Victorian theories of racial, cultural and political classification arose. The book focuses on the lives of particular men and their thoughts on empire to reveal how Victorian ideologies of imperialism came about.

Throughout the nineteenth century the British Empire was the subject of much writing; floods of articles, books and government reports were produced about the areas under British control and the policy of imperialism. Mid-Victorian Imperialists investigates how the Victorians made sense of all the information regarding the empire by examining the writings of a collection of gentlemen who were amongst the first people to join the Colonial Society in 1868-69. These men included imperial officials, leading settlers, British politicians and writers, and Beasley looks at the common trends in their beliefs about the British Empire and how their thoughts changed during their lives to show how Mid-Victorian theories of racial, cultural and political classification arose.

Table Of Contents Acknowledgments iv Abbreviations v Preface by Peter Catterall I Introduction II Arthur Mills, Almanacs, and Despotism. III The Man who ran the Empire. IV Frederic Rogers and the ‘Transcendental Expectation’ V Letters from Australia, Pt 1: The Citizens VI Letters from Australia, Pt 2: The Governor and the End of the World VII The Variety of Englishmen and their Empires, Part 1: Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton VIII The Variety of Englishmen and their Empires, Part 2. IX Generalizing about Humanity: Lord Carnarvon. X Rawlinson, Northcote, and the Imperialism of Information Management. XI Conclusion Bibliography

Edward Beasley is a Lecturer in History at San Diego State University, where he also teaches in the Liberal Studies Program. He is the author of Empire as the Triumph of Theory:Imperialism, Informationand the Colonial Society of 1868 (Routledge 2004).