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帝國移民三部曲
Edge of Empire. Conquest and Collecting in the East 1750-1850
Paperback. Pub Date :2006-08-21 388 English HarperCollins UK Talented historian Maya Jasanoff offers an alternative history of the British Empire It is not about conquest - but rather a collection of startling and fascinating personal accounts of. cross-cultural exchange from those who found themselves on the edges of Empire.A Palladian mansion filled with Western art in the centre of old Calcutta. the Mughal Emperors letters in an archive in the French Alps. the names of Italian adventurers scratched into the walls of Egyptian in this imaginative book. Maya Jasanoff delves into the stories behind artefacts like these to uncover the lives of collectors in India and Egypt who lived on the frontiers of European empire Edge of Empire traces their exploits to tell an intimate history of imperialism.Written and researched on four continents. ...
401 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2005
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About the author
Maya Jasanoff
6 books95 followersMaya Jasanoff’s teaching and research focus on the history of modern Britain and the British Empire, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her first book, Edge of Empire: Lives, Culture, and Conquest in the East, 1750-1850, investigates British expansion in India and Egypt through the lives of art collectors. It was awarded the 2005 Duff Cooper Prize and was a book of the year selection in numerous British publications including The Economist, The Observer, and The Sunday Times. She has recently completed a new book, Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (forthcoming February 2011), which provides the first global history of the loyalists who fled the United States after the American Revolution, and resettled in Canada, the Caribbean, Britain, Sierra Leone, and beyond. Her current research explores the worlds of Joseph Conrad. Jasanoff has been an ACLS Charles A. Ryskamp Fellow, a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library, and a Kluge Fellow at the Library of Congress. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine. (Source: http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/jasanoff.php)
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June 26, 2021
Generally speaking, I like the view from the margins, from the edges: it’s a helpful reminder of the decolonial outlook that where we think and do is as important as what we think and do. It’s also really helpful to look at those in and of the margins who are granted power and authority by any system’s dominant means of making sense. It might help explain that I live and work in the UK, am of Scottish & Irish descent and was born and raised in Aotearoa/New Zealand so despite growing up with that broadly British frame of reference, my deeply embedded view of the world is from what many with the power to define see as its margins – I am of its antipodes. All this makes it odd that a book called Edge of Empire has sat in the to-read pile for, it turns out, several years (it’s a big to-read pile).
I recalled really strong reviews from when the book came out in the mid-2000s, which only served to heighten the sense of delayed gratification I hoped for when finally I picked it up – and it may have been heightened expectations from a memory that over-inflated those reviews, but I found it less gratifying than I had hoped.
Now, that’s not to say it was a disappointment. Jasanoff does several really important things in writing of the margins. First, she debunks the notion of the singular discrete notion of Empire. Second, she tends to focus on imperial actors who do not come from or have authority and power in the metropolitan centre. Third, she blurs the distinction between colonised and colonisers, accentuating notions of hybridity. Finally, at least in the explorations of the 18th century grants voice to those colonised (or at least those with collaborative power and with wealth).
Jasanoff shifts focus across her 100-year time span, from British involvement in India, where a private company with Royal Charter acted in the interests of the state, through zones of imperial conflict ‘in the East’ (more accurately, west and south Asia) between France and England at the turn of the 19th century to close by discussing French and English competing interests in Egypt in the wake of the French invasion and after about 1800.
Along with this shifting geographic focus, Jasanoff also shifts focus on ‘characters’. Part of this shift is probably to do with the characteristics of Empire and part to do with the places of colonisation. Not only was Egypt a more coherent polity, as an established part of the Ottoman Empire with a single structure of state governance, but Empire itself had become more established and coherent by the beginning of the 19th century. This final third of the discussion then centres on figures who are more ingrained to the state and Empire, even though there is a potent sense of English-French rivalry and contested images. There is also less presence of Egyptian characters than there are Indians in the opening section.
The discussion of India, however, has a very different feel and tone. First, Empire in India less coherent, the Company was primarily was trading venture so initially set up (highly exploitative) links to local rulers, and was not averse to forcing ‘regime change’ to protect and enhance its interests. As a consequence of this more scattered and dispersed sense of Empire, and presence of more contending Imperial powers, the uneven sense of Imperial control left more marginal and ‘interstitial’ sites for those more on the edge of empire to set down roots. So, whereas once she gets to Egypt Jasanoff’s key figures are formalised agents of the state, her European characters in India are agents of imperialism but not necessarily of a singular entity we might think of as (the) Empire. Not only is Empire less clearly defined, but their associations with the nations of Europe are also fuzzier – so several of her key figures are from Savoy, which by the 19th century had been incorporated into France, while in the 18th century man of these Indian-based Savoyards (of a still independent Savoy) associated more closely with England. All of this is reminder of the ways ‘nation’ became more narrowly defined and conceived from the early 19th century.
All in all, then, the picture Jasanoff paints of Empire is less clear than many we see – but there are also two further factors of writing from the edge. Much of the analysis relies on an engagement with Anglo-French Imperial rivalry and conflict. In addition, many of the characters she focuses in are marginal or ‘arriviste’ at best, so that much of what they do is designed to accentuate and raise their social standing. It is this second point that makes for much of the power of the narrative and for several of its (key) problems in that that rise in status turned on collecting, on wealth and on acquiring the accoutrements of cultural power.
Opening with a discussion of Robert Clive (the mythical ‘Clive of India’) this discussion of ‘collecting’ has two aspects. The first is those actions by individuals who sought to transform their middling metropolitan standing to membership of an elite through acquisition of wealth. In many cases, this was wealth based in (highly exploitative and unequal) commerce that was then used to acquire/collect goods – artefacts, art works and so forth – that marked their aristocratic aspirations. In many cases, this resulted in frustration where, for instance, these ‘nouveau aristos’ resented that their aristocratic titles – Earldoms and so forth – were Irish and not English meaning, among other things, they could not sit in the House of Lords. The second was unfettered plunder and looting, the most obvious example discussed in India happening after the occupation of Seringapatam, which also had the effect of removing a possible strong French ally and thereby enhancing British power. This looting may also be seen in the acquisition of Egyptian artefacts. The big problem here is that not only does Jasanoff not clearly distinguish these two forms of ‘collecting’, but it is not clear the extent to which ‘purchase’ was that distinct from plunder in some cases.
When Imperial rivalry is added to this and the French invasion of Egypt seen as a threat to British power in India the value of the comparative history Jasanoff does becomes clear. When this boundary rivalry is combined with the boundary blurring of residence, of the inter-weaving of personal, political, cultural and economic lives of these arriviste Imperialists and those who hold power in colonised communities the insights of writing from the edge of empire expose lucidly the complexities of Empire. Jasanoff then has done well to paint a picture of Empire that is less discrete and fuzzier on the ground than the depiction we often get from the centre, where metropolitan aspiration is confused with imperial and colonial actuality. Yet, in doing so she has weakened the sense of Imperial exploitation and pillage. It’s a tough balance to get right: the source of my sense of limited gratification is that for all the power and insight of the book she hasn’t quite found that balance.
I recalled really strong reviews from when the book came out in the mid-2000s, which only served to heighten the sense of delayed gratification I hoped for when finally I picked it up – and it may have been heightened expectations from a memory that over-inflated those reviews, but I found it less gratifying than I had hoped.
Now, that’s not to say it was a disappointment. Jasanoff does several really important things in writing of the margins. First, she debunks the notion of the singular discrete notion of Empire. Second, she tends to focus on imperial actors who do not come from or have authority and power in the metropolitan centre. Third, she blurs the distinction between colonised and colonisers, accentuating notions of hybridity. Finally, at least in the explorations of the 18th century grants voice to those colonised (or at least those with collaborative power and with wealth).
Jasanoff shifts focus across her 100-year time span, from British involvement in India, where a private company with Royal Charter acted in the interests of the state, through zones of imperial conflict ‘in the East’ (more accurately, west and south Asia) between France and England at the turn of the 19th century to close by discussing French and English competing interests in Egypt in the wake of the French invasion and after about 1800.
Along with this shifting geographic focus, Jasanoff also shifts focus on ‘characters’. Part of this shift is probably to do with the characteristics of Empire and part to do with the places of colonisation. Not only was Egypt a more coherent polity, as an established part of the Ottoman Empire with a single structure of state governance, but Empire itself had become more established and coherent by the beginning of the 19th century. This final third of the discussion then centres on figures who are more ingrained to the state and Empire, even though there is a potent sense of English-French rivalry and contested images. There is also less presence of Egyptian characters than there are Indians in the opening section.
The discussion of India, however, has a very different feel and tone. First, Empire in India less coherent, the Company was primarily was trading venture so initially set up (highly exploitative) links to local rulers, and was not averse to forcing ‘regime change’ to protect and enhance its interests. As a consequence of this more scattered and dispersed sense of Empire, and presence of more contending Imperial powers, the uneven sense of Imperial control left more marginal and ‘interstitial’ sites for those more on the edge of empire to set down roots. So, whereas once she gets to Egypt Jasanoff’s key figures are formalised agents of the state, her European characters in India are agents of imperialism but not necessarily of a singular entity we might think of as (the) Empire. Not only is Empire less clearly defined, but their associations with the nations of Europe are also fuzzier – so several of her key figures are from Savoy, which by the 19th century had been incorporated into France, while in the 18th century man of these Indian-based Savoyards (of a still independent Savoy) associated more closely with England. All of this is reminder of the ways ‘nation’ became more narrowly defined and conceived from the early 19th century.
All in all, then, the picture Jasanoff paints of Empire is less clear than many we see – but there are also two further factors of writing from the edge. Much of the analysis relies on an engagement with Anglo-French Imperial rivalry and conflict. In addition, many of the characters she focuses in are marginal or ‘arriviste’ at best, so that much of what they do is designed to accentuate and raise their social standing. It is this second point that makes for much of the power of the narrative and for several of its (key) problems in that that rise in status turned on collecting, on wealth and on acquiring the accoutrements of cultural power.
Opening with a discussion of Robert Clive (the mythical ‘Clive of India’) this discussion of ‘collecting’ has two aspects. The first is those actions by individuals who sought to transform their middling metropolitan standing to membership of an elite through acquisition of wealth. In many cases, this was wealth based in (highly exploitative and unequal) commerce that was then used to acquire/collect goods – artefacts, art works and so forth – that marked their aristocratic aspirations. In many cases, this resulted in frustration where, for instance, these ‘nouveau aristos’ resented that their aristocratic titles – Earldoms and so forth – were Irish and not English meaning, among other things, they could not sit in the House of Lords. The second was unfettered plunder and looting, the most obvious example discussed in India happening after the occupation of Seringapatam, which also had the effect of removing a possible strong French ally and thereby enhancing British power. This looting may also be seen in the acquisition of Egyptian artefacts. The big problem here is that not only does Jasanoff not clearly distinguish these two forms of ‘collecting’, but it is not clear the extent to which ‘purchase’ was that distinct from plunder in some cases.
When Imperial rivalry is added to this and the French invasion of Egypt seen as a threat to British power in India the value of the comparative history Jasanoff does becomes clear. When this boundary rivalry is combined with the boundary blurring of residence, of the inter-weaving of personal, political, cultural and economic lives of these arriviste Imperialists and those who hold power in colonised communities the insights of writing from the edge of empire expose lucidly the complexities of Empire. Jasanoff then has done well to paint a picture of Empire that is less discrete and fuzzier on the ground than the depiction we often get from the centre, where metropolitan aspiration is confused with imperial and colonial actuality. Yet, in doing so she has weakened the sense of Imperial exploitation and pillage. It’s a tough balance to get right: the source of my sense of limited gratification is that for all the power and insight of the book she hasn’t quite found that balance.
May 6, 2018
Extraordinary and ambitious, the book--Jasanoff's first--nevertheless feels a bit compressed, and even disjointed, at times. Ostensibly focusing on the act of collecting as a paradigm to rethink the very nature of the (early) British imperial experience in "the East", the book is divided into three parts--acts which can best be seen as free-standing volumes. Each succeeds brilliantly on its own terms, but the larger point about collecting is often lost and ultimately underdeveloped.
The first, "India, 1750-1799", is essentially "White Mughals"--William Dalrymple's 2002 book on the assimilationist proclivities of many European adventurers in the subcontinent. Much of this section feels like a vehicle to introduce the reader to the general historiography of the British empire in Asia; it probably works well for most readers, but I found it a bit of a drag. Here Jasanoff also introduces the "Edge" part of her title, demonstrating how marginal many of those who worked for the East India Company (or else local rulers) were to European society, from Irishmen to Savoyards. The collecting habits of the most successful of these imperial entrepreneurs represented and facilitated their "self-fashioning" into something not quite native, but no longer European.
The second section, "Imperial Collision, 1798-1801," is the most thrilling. Jasanoff relates the relatively unknown story of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and its repercussions, not only for the ultimate winners and losers of the imperial game, but for the rules of the game. Jasanoff conclusively shows that British territorial expansion against Tipu Sultan of Mysore was tied to the invasion of Egypt, and fears that Napoleon might use the Red Sea to launch an attack against British India. One of the great delights of the book is this re-integration and recovery of scattered, nationally-based narratives of expansion and conquest. Like most imperial French schemes, the invasion of Egypt foundered against the superior strength of the British navy, but--you guessed it--collection (this time of Egyptian antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone) redeemed French failure, and recast the struggle for Egypt in (mostly) symbolic and archaeological terms.
The third section, "Egypt, 1801-1840," relates the contest between British and French consuls for the favor of Egypt's ruler, which came with the right (firman) to excavate and export the ruins of Upper Egypt to Europe. There's a lot here that will be familiar to readers of Said's Orientalism, but Jasanoff recasts the information in more nuanced terms. In her view, the race for antiquities was not necessarily or always bound up with the impetus for conquest, classification, and control.
The first, "India, 1750-1799", is essentially "White Mughals"--William Dalrymple's 2002 book on the assimilationist proclivities of many European adventurers in the subcontinent. Much of this section feels like a vehicle to introduce the reader to the general historiography of the British empire in Asia; it probably works well for most readers, but I found it a bit of a drag. Here Jasanoff also introduces the "Edge" part of her title, demonstrating how marginal many of those who worked for the East India Company (or else local rulers) were to European society, from Irishmen to Savoyards. The collecting habits of the most successful of these imperial entrepreneurs represented and facilitated their "self-fashioning" into something not quite native, but no longer European.
The second section, "Imperial Collision, 1798-1801," is the most thrilling. Jasanoff relates the relatively unknown story of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and its repercussions, not only for the ultimate winners and losers of the imperial game, but for the rules of the game. Jasanoff conclusively shows that British territorial expansion against Tipu Sultan of Mysore was tied to the invasion of Egypt, and fears that Napoleon might use the Red Sea to launch an attack against British India. One of the great delights of the book is this re-integration and recovery of scattered, nationally-based narratives of expansion and conquest. Like most imperial French schemes, the invasion of Egypt foundered against the superior strength of the British navy, but--you guessed it--collection (this time of Egyptian antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone) redeemed French failure, and recast the struggle for Egypt in (mostly) symbolic and archaeological terms.
The third section, "Egypt, 1801-1840," relates the contest between British and French consuls for the favor of Egypt's ruler, which came with the right (firman) to excavate and export the ruins of Upper Egypt to Europe. There's a lot here that will be familiar to readers of Said's Orientalism, but Jasanoff recasts the information in more nuanced terms. In her view, the race for antiquities was not necessarily or always bound up with the impetus for conquest, classification, and control.
April 7, 2012
Too much immersion in the insignificant. I had to stop short.
March 7, 2018
Reflecting on the imperial ambitions of the British and French Empires, Jasanoff weaves in the stories of governors, statesmen, art collectors, and the like into an enjoyable read. Her research is thorough, encapsulating mainly the evolution of imperial desires in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and India. The eighteenth century is a topic that is often challenging, as it often straddles between our perceptions of the early modern and modern eras. The book itself even seems to diverge from the conventional commodity histories, such as that of fellow Harvard historian Beckert. Nevertheless, the contribution of this book to the historiography of the British and French Empires is certainly noted. Jasanoff recognizes how art exhibits and museums embodied, and even fueled, the growth of imperial ambitions in Africa and in Asia. And, similar to how Europeans recognized their changing role in the eighteenth century, historians today can use Jasanoff's book to reconsider how to write imperial histories.
January 27, 2020
Review of Edge of Empire by Maya Josanoff
A full history of the Conquest and Collecting in the East 1750-1850. The primary countries examined are Britain and France. The book follows the conflicts between the two countries, the changes in culture within them and between them and the countries primarily of India and Egypt, and how collecting influenced those changes. Full of footnotes, the book was fascinating. I learned much about Britain’s conquest of India and France’s conquest of Egypt and how each country involved influenced the other. It made me want to go to those days and see what happened.
A full history of the Conquest and Collecting in the East 1750-1850. The primary countries examined are Britain and France. The book follows the conflicts between the two countries, the changes in culture within them and between them and the countries primarily of India and Egypt, and how collecting influenced those changes. Full of footnotes, the book was fascinating. I learned much about Britain’s conquest of India and France’s conquest of Egypt and how each country involved influenced the other. It made me want to go to those days and see what happened.
June 20, 2022
Exceptional book divulging many facts and chronicling them both from collectors point as well as two feuding nations of the 18th Century that influenced colonisation -The British and the French .
When one out witted the other that nation worked hard to claim artefacts to be displayed in their own museums more as war trophies .
This is a book unlike any other on Raj era I have read and it did make compulsive reading and would for those seeking out histories of two oldest nations on the planet India and Egypt whose destinies were linked with the artefacts colonists were out and out to accumulate .
NYT aptly called it 'compelling to read'
When one out witted the other that nation worked hard to claim artefacts to be displayed in their own museums more as war trophies .
This is a book unlike any other on Raj era I have read and it did make compulsive reading and would for those seeking out histories of two oldest nations on the planet India and Egypt whose destinies were linked with the artefacts colonists were out and out to accumulate .
NYT aptly called it 'compelling to read'
January 24, 2020
Enthralling dive into the cultural exchanges and conquests of the “East” by the British and French empires during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A great interwoven narrative that takes the reader from the ascendant days of the East India Company in Mughal era India to the subjugation of Egypt by British forces in the 1840s. Most importantly, the author traces the collection of cultural objects of the Orient and its affect on empire.
November 30, 2022
Io l'ho trovato quasi illeggibile e non sono riuscito ad andare oltre le prime 100 pagine. A parte il fatto che non è la storia della Compagnia delle Indie, ma una sorta di saggio sul colonialismo britannico e il collezionismo (non ho capito poi il nesso tra le due cose), è comunque un libro molto prolisso, che si perde nel raccontare il nulla in maniera molto pesante.
May 27, 2025
The sheer amount of interesting history this book attempts to cover is in itself a feat. At times it may lag or feel slightly disorganized but that’s to be expected with a subject matter so all encompassing. So many interesting tales within the microchasms of history that shape the larger narrative. Jasanoff has a great rhythm and style that is perfect for these puzzle piece stories.
January 10, 2019
Well written, lots of information mainly about the British empire in India and Egypt.
April 5, 2020
An interesting history of colonial influence/rule in India & Egypt from 1750-1850. Jasanoff gives a balanced and nuanced perspective that filled in a look of gaps in my understanding.
October 14, 2024
Well written and very knowledgeable, it ties together the tiny bits of history that I do know with a much broader picture and how so much of it was a result of anglo-french politics & war
March 2, 2017
A very interesting read about how the British and French conquered the rest of the world. History preserved in museums are or were taken either by force, bought, stolen or taken as trophies of war. But it wasn't really about colonizing and wars, it was mainly about as the empire expands the riches of the countries/cities were collected and shipped to its final resting places either at the Louvre in Paris or the British Museum and/or in India or Egypt.
Interesting read about the people who collected these relics and life struggles and fortunes.
If I've intrigued you, have a read.. a little slow in the beginning but gets a bit more interesting in the middle.
Interesting read about the people who collected these relics and life struggles and fortunes.
If I've intrigued you, have a read.. a little slow in the beginning but gets a bit more interesting in the middle.
December 13, 2016
I've been a fan of Jasanoff's since reading 'Liberty's Exiles', but this left me wanting. While the writing is as nuanced and insightful as usual, the content fails to live up to the promise of the title. Rather than focusing on individuals who truly existed at the edge of empire, Jasanoff chooses to focus instead on imperialist and orientalist 'collectors'. It's hard to see any meaningful cultural exchange in stories of Europeans traipsing through 'the Orient' buying up treasures with blood money.
January 13, 2014
After reading "Liberty's exiles", this one sounded interesting. Although it probably has more scholarly detail than I was interested in, it was still worth reading.
It is hard to realize the influence which India and Egypt had on the Western world without an in-depth look at these two fascinating places.
It is hard to realize the influence which India and Egypt had on the Western world without an in-depth look at these two fascinating places.
September 4, 2015
What a fine little history. Very interesting and fast paced book about a period of Franco-Anglo history that most Americans are ignorant.
Starting in 1750, when Great Britain collected its vast Indian colony almost by accident, author Maya Jasanoff weaves small, intimate mini-biographies of into the larger warp and weft of the larger fabric of the English-French rivalry.
Starting in 1750, when Great Britain collected its vast Indian colony almost by accident, author Maya Jasanoff weaves small, intimate mini-biographies of into the larger warp and weft of the larger fabric of the English-French rivalry.
December 12, 2015
Good to know some elites were having a good time while those pesky masses died of starvation
May 14, 2012
Molto ben scritto e documentato. Forse la parte finale sull'Egitto, peraltro interessantissima, appare relativamente eccentrica rispetto al tema centrale.
September 9, 2016
Most interesting focus..
March 27, 2017
3.5/5. Fascinating and in-depth look at the collection of artefacts during the building of the French and British empires, with a focus on India and Egypt. This book brings together so many different areas of history which are usually studied in isolation, so it is a revelation to see how they all connect. If you're a particular connoisseur of Napoleonic history, British or French imperial history, British Indian history, Egyptology, or you just really like museums this might interest you. For myself, Egyptology was my drawcard, and though Napoleonic/French history never enamored me when I was studying it at uni, I did enjoy the revision. It does go into some detail about specific people and artefacts which can be dry at times.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews