Divida dos estados: custo, como sempre, vai recair sobre os contribuintes, ou seja, voce mesmo leitor

Do sempre bem informado Ricardo Bergamini:

Oito Unidades da Federação (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Distrito Federal e Bahia) representam 76,6% do PIB brasileiro. (Fonte IBGE).
Os estados mais ricos da federação são os maiores beneficiários da “Bolsa da União para os Estados”.
Ricardo Bergamini

Programas de Ajuste Fiscal
Dívida Consolidada Líquida dos Estados e Municípios Com a União
Fonte MF

Base: Ano de 2015
Estados   -   R$ Bilhões  -  %
São Paulo - 220,1 - 37,52
Minas Gerais - 56,5 - 9,63
Rio de Janeiro - 56,5 - 9,63
Rio Grande do Sul - 40,7 - 6,94
Outros 23 estados - 89,0 - 15,18
Total - 462,8 - 78,90

Municípios  -  123,8 - 21,10
Total - 586,6 - 100,00

Considerações:

1) Somente o estado de São Paulo concentra 37,52% do total das dívidas dos Estados e Municípios com a União.

2) Apenas 4 estados (São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro e Rio Grande do Sul) concentra 63,72% das dívidas dos Estados e Municípios com a União.

3) Em 31 de dezembro de 2015 a dívida total dos Estados e Municípios com a União montavam em R$ 586,6 bilhões.

4) Forma de pagamento e juros com base na Lei 9.496, de 11 de setembro de 1997:

4.1) O Governo Federal editou em 29/12/2015 o Decreto nº 8.616, para regulamentar a Lei Complementar 148/2014 que, entre outras disposições, autorizou a União a adotar novas condições nos contratos de refinanciamento de dívidas dos estados e municípios com a União.

O decreto, publicado ontem em edição extraordinária do Diário Oficial da União, estabelece as fórmulas para reprocessamento das dívidas pelos novos encargos autorizados, bem como para a apuração mensal do coeficiente de atualização monetária da dívida remanescente.

O decreto dispõe ainda sobre as providências a serem adotadas pelos devedores antes da celebração dos aditivos contratuais com a União para aplicação das disposições da LC 148/2014, como obtenção de autorização legislativa, conferência e concordância prévia com os cálculos, observação das exigências contidas na Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal (LRF) para essas operações e desistência de ações judiciais eventualmente propostas sobre os contratos de refinanciamento.

De acordo com a Lei Complementar 151/2015, o prazo para celebração desses aditivos contratuais e aplicação dos novos encargos é 31 de janeiro de 2016. Após essa data, os devedores que não tiverem reunido as condições exigidas para o aditamento continuarão pagando suas dívidas com a União nas condições vigentes até que a alteração contratual seja feita.

LC 148/2014
A Lei Complementar nº 148 alterou os critérios de indexação aplicáveis aos contratos de refinanciamento de dívidas de Estados e de Municípios, firmados com a União no âmbito da Lei nº 9.496, de 11 de setembro de 1997, e da Medida Provisória nº 2.192-70, de 24 de agosto de 2001, bem como dos contratos de refinanciamento de dívidas de Municípios, celebrados ao amparo da Medida Provisória nº 2.185, de 24 de agosto de 2001.

Dentre as principais inovações trazidas, destacam-se:

- concessão de desconto sobre os saldos devedores dos contratos de refinanciamento de dívidas dos Estados e dos Municípios, correspondente à diferença entre os saldos existentes em 1º de janeiro de 2013 e aqueles apurados, naquela data, pelo recálculo das dívidas de acordo com a variação acumulada da taxa SELIC desde a data de assinatura dos contratos; e

- aplicação de novos indexadores a partir de 1º de janeiro de 2013, observada a menor das variações acumuladas entre o IPCA mais 4% a.a. e a taxa Selic, em substituição aos encargos contratuais originais, IGP-DI mais juros de 6% a 7,5% a.a. para Estados e Distrito Federal, e IGP-DI + 9% a.a. para os Municípios.

A aplicação da LC 148 impactará mais de 200 (duzentos) contratos de refinanciamento de dívidas celebrados entre estados, DF e municípios e a União e deverá permitir aos entes a possibilidade de redução em seus pagamentos futuros para a União. A LC 148 não traz impactos para a dívida pública e não afeta o resultado primário da União e dos entes.

 Grato ao economista Ricardo Bergamini (PRA)

Mandchuria, 1931: o militarismo japones avanca na China - Delanceyplace

Today's selection -- from Japan 1941 by Eri Hotta.  On September 18, 1931 Japanese soldiers staged an explosion along a railway line owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway and blamed Chinese dissidents.  The Japanese army used this event as an excuse to invade China thereby increasing Japan regional dominance and influence with the world. Even though Japanese newspapers were aware that the Japanese army had staged the bombing they did not report it.  "The Manchurian Incident, staged by Colonel Ishiwara Kanji, changed everything. On September 18, 1931, some soldiers of the Kwantung Army stationed in the Japanese-leased railway zone to protect Japan's interests in southern Manchuria exploded a small bomb on the railway and claimed that anti-Japanese Chinese elements were responsible. Using the incident as a pretext to launch a full-scale assault on local Chinese troops, Japanese troops occupied the entire northeastern area over the next five months. "Ishiwara was a magnetic: and eccentric officer who had formulated an apocalyptic: war theory some years before. His pivotal role in the Manchurian takeover would make him a key figure in Japan's military buildup for war in China (though he personally opposed the China War) and eventually in the Pacific. He had long regarded a titanic clash between East and West -- most likely between Japan and the United States but also possibly the Soviet Union -- as a matter of historical inevitability. This type of rhetoric, glorifying Japan's heroic destiny, would influence many a middle-ranking strategist in the army and the navy. Japanese troops entering Manchuria during Manchurian Incident "On the eve of the Manchurian Incident, Ishiwara believed that Chiang Kai-shek's brand of assertive Chinese nationalism, supported by many industrialists, and the increasing Western recognition of Chiang's power had become major problems for Japan. ... By 1931, Chiang had succeeded in establishing himself as the nominal leader of a unified China, although he would repeatedly be challenged by his warlord allies as well as by the Communists. From the Japanese perspective, one thing was sure, that Chiang was increasingly leaning toward cooperation with Western powers (primarily the United States), while distancing himself from Japan and adopting strong anti-Japanese rhetoric. "To many in Japan, the Western support Chiang garnered in a relatively short time represented a betrayal, a turning back from the tacit and time-honored imperialist method of keeping China divided so that foreign powers could benefit from its weakness. ... [This] compelled Ishiwara and his followers to go far beyond the call of duty and invade Manchuria. Their reckless initiative came as a surprise to most leaders in Tokyo, though the plotters may well have had supporters in the higher ranks of the Army General Staff. At the beginning of the Manchurian campaign, Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijiro and Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro, among others, wanted to contain hostilities. Japanese public opinion, however, fueled by the jingoistic media, keenly supported Ishiwara's adventures. The public was fed reports commending the courage of the field army, swelling national pride. Major newspapers competed with one another, issuing extras with exclusive photos of Japan's every strategic move, profiting greatly from their suddenly booming circulation. Correspondents were sent to war zones to report under such dramatic headlines as 'Our Army Heroically Marches from Changchun to Jilin' and 'Our Imperial Army Charges into Qiqihar, Its Great Spirit Piercing Through the Sky!' "The papers at this time made a conscious political choice that would haunt them in the coming decade: self-censorship. Despite their knowledge, passed on to them in private by some army officers, that the supposedly Chinese-orchestrated bombing was a sham, all the major newspapers chose to withhold this information. They never divulged to the reading public the false pretext of a Chinese plot, and they fully backed the Kwantung Army's claim, successively featuring bogus reports that professed to reveal 'the truth of the [Manchurian] incident.' These reports were illustrated with photographs of the damaged rail beds and the corpse of a Chinese soldier allegedly responsible for the act. (He was actually killed and placed near the railway by the Japanese.)"

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Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy Author: Eri Hotta Publisher: Vintage Books a division of Random House  Copyright 2013 by Eri Hotta Page 43-45

Dimensoes internacionais da corrupcao companheira na era lulopetista - Carlos Brickmann

Apenas transcrevendo, como compete a este blog que trata de tudo o que é internacional no Brasil (ou quase tudo, menos futebol e modelos de moda), e que se interessa sempre em saber o que é que a diplomacia tem a ver com tudo isso.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

Da coluna diária de Carlos Brickmann, 21/06/2016

Ação empresarial
Os fatos como os fatos são: para dar conta do matagal de propinas no Brasil e no Exterior, a Odebrecht comprou um banco no paraíso fiscal de Antigua, na América Central. O Meinl Bank Antigua, que antes tinha sido a base off-shore de um antigo banco austríaco, chegou a controlar 42 contas no Exterior, administrando entradas e saídas de fundos secretos - um pouco mais de US$ 130 milhões, ao mesmo tempo.

Ação prática
Por mais precisas que sejam, as delações jamais terminam: sempre sobra uma peninha (que, nas palavras do ministro Teori Zavascki, quando são puxadas revelam mais uma galinha), O mercado está na expectativa de novas revelações de Sérgio Machado sobre pedras preciosas na lavagem de dinheiro. São muito práticas: substituem milhares de dólares e são difíceis de monitorar. Há quem diga que boa parte do ótimo relacionamento dos governos petistas com Angola envolve diamantes, e com um toque religioso que aparece até no nome das instituições financeiras envolvidas. Delação premiada deve incluir tudo - inclusive temas delicados como esse.

Ação oficial
Ah, as relações sociais do Brasil dilmista com os países pobres, mas amigos, irmãos e cooperativos! Angola, que transformou a filha do seu presidente em mulher mais rica da África, recebeu R$ 14 bilhões; a Venezuela, detentora das maiores reservas de petróleo do mundo, R$ 11 bilhões. Seguem-se República Dominicana, R$ 8 bilhões; Argentina, R$ 7,8 bilhões; Cuba, R$ 3 bilhões; Peru, R$ 2 bilhões; Moçambique, R$ 1,5 bilhão. No total, incluindo empréstimos menores, R$ 50,5 bilhões - quase um terço do déficit público que inferniza o atual Governo e que foi responsável por boa parte da crise que consumiu o Governo Dilma.

O Papa contra a politica no Risorgimento italiano - David Gilmour (Delanceyplace)

Today's selection -- from The Pursuit of Italy by David Gilmour. In 1870, as the last step in Italy's unification as a single country (the Risorgimento), the forces of King Victor Emmanuel II captured Rome, which had long been the domain of Pope Pius under French protection. Resentful of the power of the newly formed country and his own diminished power, Pope Pius instructed Italian Catholics not to vote in the elections of their newly formed country's government, thus dooming it to a generation of fractiousness. In fact, only 420,000 people out of a population of 22 million voted in the first election. Ironically, Pope Pius' sense of diminished importance also led him to make some of the boldest proclamations in the history of the Catholic church, including the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility: "Pope Pius IX reacted to Rome's capture in 1870 by excommunicating 'the sub-Alpine usurper' (Victor Emanuel) and refusing to recognize united Italy. Yet in spite of hostile relations, the new state understood the need for Catholic support and made some early concessions in the hope of attracting it. The Law of Papal Guarantees of 1871 granted the pontiff the status of a sovereign, with foreign ambassadors accredited to him, and gave him a generous income and free 'enjoyment' of the Vatican. This munificence was not excessive but, even so, it may have been unwise because it permitted the formation of 'a state within a state', one that could denounce the larger entity with impunity for the next sixty years. "The pope, who liked to describe himself as 'the prisoner of the Vatican', was not mollified by the law. Still resentful of the conquest, the closure of convents and the loss of his territories, he refused to have any dealings with the government and continued to insist that he was the rightful ruler of the Papal States. His response to Italian nationalism and to much of the modern world was to lead the Church into zones of obscurantism unvisited by most of his predecessors. In 1854 he had asserted that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception -- the belief that the Virgin Mary herself was conceived without sin -- had been revealed by God. Ten years later, the Syllabus of Errors had condemned eighty modern 'errors' and declared it impossible for the pontiff to accept 'progress, liberalism and civilization as lately introduced'. More recently, in 1870, Pius had proclaimed the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, which asserted that the pope himself could make no errors when speaking, in his capacity as Bishop of Rome, on matters of faith and morals. Yet he and his four successors were curiously reluctant to exercise the power he had insisted upon. No pope claimed infallibility until 1950, when Pius XII declared that 'the ever Virgin Mary' had been 'assumed in body and soul to heavenly glory'. "In 1864 the longest-serving of all popes had told Italian Catholics it was 'not expedient' to vote in parliamentary elections, a position he reiterated after the fall of Rome and one which was strengthened by his successor, Leo XIII, who in 1881 forbade any members of his flock to stand for parliament or vote in national elections. Not until the following century did a pope publish an encyclical allowing Catholics to vote in order to preserve social stability -- that is, to prevent the emerging Socialist Party from dominating the country's politics. "Many Catholics entitled to vote did so anyway, despite the papal pronouncements. All the same, the Vatican's refusal to recognize the Italian state was fatal to the cohesion and consolidation of the new nation. Catholicism was the one thing shared by nearly all Italians, and the papacy was the only institution in the country that could claim both longevity and continuity. Pius could have been a unifier yet decided alas to be a disruptor. His outrage and hostility encouraged many people to question the legitimacy of the new state and thus weakened the loyalty of millions of its citizens. An alliance of nationalism and Catholicism could have made a powerful force, as it did in Ireland, Spain and Poland. Instead, the animosity between them within Italy led to a divide in an already fractured country that lasted until Mussolini's Lateran Treaty of 1929. Devout Catholics were unable to play a commanding role in Italian politics until a christian democrat became prime minister after the Second World War."

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The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples Author: David Gilmour  Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Copyright 2011 by David Gilmo

Seminário Internacional de Planejamento Estratégico

ENSINO

``O Brasil pode se tornar uma das economias mais dinâmicas do Século XXI´´, diz professor

II Seminário Internacional de Planejamento Estratégico de Defesa Nacional foi realizado na UNIFA

Publicado: 20/06/2016 09:40h

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"Se nós aproveitarmos as oportunidades, o Brasil pode se tornar uma das economias mais dinâmicas do Século XXI". A mensagem do economista, diplomata, cientista social e professor da Universidade Columbia, Marcos Troyo, encerrou o II Seminário Internacional de Planejamento Estratégico de Defesa Nacional, realizado na última sexta-feira (20/6) na Universidade da Força Aérea (UNIFA), no Rio de Janeiro (RJ).

Cerca de 400 civis e militares debateram sobre temas como desenvolvimento nacional, reglobalização e o conhecimento como projeção de poder. Para isso, foram analisados desde aspectos da história do Brasil até o planejamento para o futuro da Força Aérea Brasileira e do País. 

O professor Anderson Ribeiro Correia, Reitor do Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA), elogiou o fato de 81% da atual frota da Força Aérea Brasileira ser composta por aeronaves produzidas ou modernizadas por empresas nacionais. "Tecnologia Aeronáutica é de longo prazo", afirmou, sobre os resultados esperados e o investimento realizado durante décadas.

O diplomata e professor Paulo Roberto de Almeida também ressaltou o papel da indústria aeroespacial. "A Força Aérea é uma força moderna, baseada em tecnologia, e por isso pode incrementar o futuro do País", disse. 

Aconteram ainda palestras do professor Bolívar Lamounier, que tratou do patrimonialismo, estatismo e clientelismo como receitas para impedir o desenvolvimento do Brasil; do professor Ricardo Vieira Alves de Castro, sobre conhecimento como projeção de poder; e do professor Olavo Bittencourt Neto, sobre mineração espacial. Já o Tenente-Brigadeiro do Ar Raul Botelho, Chefe do Estado-Maior da Aeronáutica (EMAER), palestrou sobre o conceitros e o planejamento estratégico da instituição. 

O Vice-Reitor da UNIFA, Brigadeiro Tirre Freire, explicou que o objetivo do Seminário é ampliar a capacitação dos alunos da Universidade, da Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior da Aeronáutica (ECEMAR), da Escola de Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais (EAOAR) e do Centro de Instrução Especializada da Aeronáutica (CIEAR). "São oportunidades para que os oficiais em cursos de carreira, de pós-formação e de pós-graduação conheçam o pensamento de grandes pesquisadores acadêmicos, com destaque no cenário internacional, o que propicia a absorção de conhecimentos contemporâneos no mundo globalizado", explicou.

 

Assunto(s): ECEMAR  UNIFA SEMINÁRIO  CIEAR  EAOAR 

Notícias Relacionadas

ENSINO

``O Brasil pode se tornar uma das economias mais dinâmicas do Século XXI´´, diz professor 

DEBATE

Universidade da Força Aérea realiza II Seminário Internacional de Planejamento Estratégico 

DEBATE

Universidade da Força Aérea realiza II Seminário Internacional de Planejamento Estratégico 

O capitalismo mafioso da Odebrecht - Mario Sabino (O Antagonista)

Com toda razão Mario Sabino diz que a Odebrecht precisa ser extinta, por representar no mais alto grau aquele tipo de capitalismo promíscuo que queremos eliminar no Brasil.
Mas, espere um pouco: está faltando a outra parte na promiscuidade.
A Odebrecht não teria chegado onde chegou sem a colaboração ativa, o estímulo, as portas abertas e os empurrões para a criminalidade de uma outra organização mafiosa, que também precisa ser extinta.
Vocês sabem de quem estou falando.
Paulo Roberto de Almeida

A Odebrecht precisa ser extinta
Por Mario Sabino
O Antagonista, 20 de Junho de 2016

A esta altura, não há dúvida razoável: a Odebrecht é uma organização criminosa disfarçada de empresa. Como tal, tem de ser totalmente desmantelada. A Odebrecht precisa ser extinta.
Está errado dizer que ela mantinha um departamento de propina. O correto é afirmar que era composta por um núcleo de corrupção cercado de departamentos que lhe serviam de fachada para roubar dinheiro público. Tanto é que a transferência para esse núcleo significava uma promoção para os funcionários.
A Odebrecht lavava o dinheiro de contratos hiperfaturados com a construção de obras mais ou menos capengas, a depender da visibilidade que elas lhe proporcionavam para a obtenção de mais contratos hiperfaturados. A fim de manter o esquema funcionando, a organização viabilizava financeiramente a eleição de políticos comprometidos com ele. Mais: a Odebrecht chegou a contratar um ex-presidente da República como lobista, para garantir um fluxo ainda maior de dinheiro público para o seu caixa, por meio de empréstimos a juros subsidiados pelos contribuintes.
Até a ascensão de Marcelo, a Odebrecht atuava como as outras empresas que há anos participam do assalto aos cofres da União, dos estados e municípios. O novo presidente da organização, no entanto, aperfeiçoou e ampliou a roubança, criando o departamento de propina que se transformou no coração de toda a estrutura.
Ele não parou por aí. A Odebrecht comprou um banco no exterior para otimizar a distribuição de dinheiro sujo aos seus cúmplices. Isso vai muito além da infiltração mafiosa no sistema financeiro europeu. É como se a máfia italiana houvesse ela própria adquirido um banco para fazer as suas transações espúrias. Marcelo Odebrecht é um gênio do crime.
Não há acordo de leniência possível com essa organização criminosa. A extinção da Odebrecht é necessária para depurar o capitalismo brasileiro e também a política do país. Ponto final.

A comunidade britanica no mundo: sua construcao cultural - Book review

H-Net
Greetings Paulo Almeida,
New items have been posted in H-Diplo.

Table of Contents

Fairchild on Crosbie and Hampton, 'The Cultural Construction of the British World' [review]

Barry Crosbie, Mark Hampton, eds. The Cultural Construction of the British World. Manchester:    Manchester University Press, 2016. 240 pp. $105.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7190-9789-8.

Reviewed by Sabrina Fairchild (University of Bristol)
Published on H-Diplo (June, 2016)
Commissioned by Seth Offenbach

Migration, networks, and culture remain organizing concepts in the history of the British world. The reason is not hard to see: between 1815 and 1914, 22.6 million people emigrated from the British Isles. Sixty percent went to the United States, but at least 13.5 million Britons settled in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. This mass movement affected a transfer of “Britishness” through emotional, commercial, cultural, and political networks that linked the colonies with Britain and with each other. Since the 1990s, historians of empire have labelled this geopolitical system the “British world.” In The Cultural Construction of the British World, Barry Crosbie and Mark Hampton push this concept beyond the Dominions, those areas of mainly white settlement. This edited collection offers fresh insights into the nature and experience of the British world, demonstrating the way it shaped British imperial expansion across the formal empire and areas of informal influence. In doing so, it offers a timely intervention into the study of the cultures of empire.

As Crosbie and Hampton assert in their introduction, this volume fruitfully combines the theoretical frameworks of the British world model with the cultural emphasis of “new imperial history” (p. 1). The former approach emerged in the late 1990s the result of a series of conferences attended by historians of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa who sought to nuance the colony-to-nation thesis of previous nationalist historians.[1] In the years following this has led to vibrant investigations in the role of remittances, journalism, religion, and tourism among others in the making of the British world.[2] A growing consensus on the importance of migration and empires as migration systems has emerged from the literature. What Crosbie and Hampton take from the British world model is the importance of movement; that the travel and careering of “expatriates, settlers and indigenous peoples” shaped the circulation of “people, goods, ideas and capital” across the British world and formed new systems of international exchange (p. 4). This analytical focus also allows them to follow their subjects out of the preexisting, Dominion-based bounds of the British world and across areas as diverse as China, the Ottoman Empire, and Sierra Leone. 

Here, Crosbie and Hampton’s expansion of the British world model gains significant support from “new imperial history.” Beginning in the early 1990s, this re-envisioning of British imperial history sought to emphasize the importance of culture as the driver of imperial expansion and the lens through which historians could see the interconnections of metropole and periphery. According to the advocates of this approach like Antoinette Burton, Catherine Hall, and John Mackenzie, culture traveled alongside the merchants, missionaries, diplomats, and adventurers who populated empire.[3] The movement of British subjects across the globe created new forms of cultural exchange which shaped the nature and trajectory of imperial expansion. Such insights provide the conceptual glue that holds Crosbie and Hampton’s expanded British world together. Wherever Britons went, they argue, they “sought to recreate the institutions familiar to home: clubs, sport, educational systems and, where possible, family structures” (p. 6). This meant that even outside the settler colonies enough cultural uniformities existed to see diverse locations as part of a cultural British world.

The introduction and eleven chapters of the collection work to explicate the cultural British world. Crosbie and Hampton’s introduction outlines the book’s rationale, its arrangement, and its broader implications. The chapters themselves are divided into two sections. The first five chapters bring to the fore the people and ideas that held together the cultural British world. The chapters by Christopher Bayly and Michelle Tusan both argue for paying better attention to British men (and women) on the ground of empire. In both Asia and the Ottoman Empire these foreign merchants, journalists, administrators, or philanthropists pushed forward the reach of British imperial expansion and determined the kind of cultural exchanges that occurred therein. Alongside these the chapters by Philippa Levine, Philip Harling, and Martin J. Wiener illustrate the types of commercial, political, and sartorial ideas that underpinned the “Britishness” of the British world. In each, questions about dress, free trade, and “English rights” provide opportunities to explore the mechanics of cultural exchange and to examine how far these processes strengthened or weakened the British world.

The second six chapters work to decenter the cultural British world by mapping its networks and tracing the ways in which people, goods, and ideas circulated across them. The chapters by Barry Crosbie and Tillman Nechtman argue for a more precise understanding of how these networks were shaped by particular ethnicities and cultural practices. In different ways, Irish military, religious and professional initiatives in India, and the material possessions brought back home by British administrators of India formed specific circuits and understandings of cultural exchange. The chapters by John Carroll, Mark Hampton, and Bronwen Everill then broaden our understanding of the scope of the British cultural world. In their studies of China and Sierra Leone the recurring themes of legitimate commerce, the civilizing mission, and fixing understandings provide evidence of the ideas and practices that drove forward and integrated the British cultural world across the formal and informal empire. Finally, Christopher Hilliard’s chapter on the career of Leavisian literary criticism in New Zealand and India suggests to historians that any expanded model of the British world still needs to engage with the Dominions and their place within this system.

As a whole, the volume provides historians of the British world and imperialism with numerous exciting areas for exploration. Obviously, it reinvigorates the debates around culture and empire. Some chapters do revisit the conventional themes and sources of cultural history. Paintings and engravings of explorations throughout North America and the Pacific provide the basis for Philippa Levine’s discussion of the twinned tropes of the “noble savage” and “naked native” (p. 18). Paintings produced in India also feature in Tillman Nechtman’s chapter as the source of William Hickney’s “feud with the [British] tax collector” and the definition of Britishness (p. 181). Where this volume really pushes forward historians’ understanding of culture in empire, however, are the chapters that expand its remit. In this context, a stand-out contribution is Philip Harling’s chapter on sugar, which uses a commodity as a lens to draw out the competing economic and cultural imperatives of empire. Seeing culture as more than just “sport, film, theatre and the media” (p. 2) therefore forces historians to look across disciplinary bounds and understand the ways in which culture, economics, diplomacy, and politics together drove forward British imperial expansion.

Together these chapters also reinforce the need to be specific about the direction and manner in which culture interconnected the British world. Barry Crosbie’s chapter argues that “Britishness” often conceals the distinctive English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh contributions to imperial expansion. Because of this Crosbie examines Irish initiatives in India to demonstrate how they were differentiated by a distinct Irish understanding and culture of empire. Clearly, the cultural British world, like the broader empire, was not “one big thing.”[4] The volume further argues for specificity in understanding imperial culture through comparative studies. The chapters by Martin Weiner and Christopher Hilliard show that similar ideas had remarkably different careers across the British world. In Weiner’s study the recourse to “English rights” bolstered British dominance in Trinidad, but also supported an indigenous campaign against the repeal of jury trials in India. Similarly, Hilliard’s chapter suggests that Leavisian literary criticism found a stronger following among intellectuals in New Zealand than it did in India. Here, each study demonstrates that instead of being “one big thing” the British world was comprised of multiple, overlapping networks of imperial cultures.

The volume’s strongest contribution is its commitment to localize the cultural British world. Doing so bridges the discussions of culture and networks by zooming in on the encounters and exchanges of specific communities. For example, at the heart of the studies by Christopher Bayly, Michelle Tusan, and John Carroll are discussions of individual initiative and agency. For Bayly the “British people who worked in Asia for significant periods” (p. 39) gained a privileged view of empire that made them effective critics for reform. Likewise for Tusan the men and women on the spot in the Ottoman Empire--consuls, diplomats and philanthropists--brought with them a sense of a humanitarian mission and used their position to influence British policy in the Near East. Carroll’s merchants, diplomats, and professionals in pre-1839 Canton may have been more transient, but they still used their unique vantage point to fix understandings about China with less hostility than previously assumed. For each study, following British subjects abroad supports the argument that British initiatives oversea created an expansive cultural British world beyond the bounds of the Dominions and the formal empire.

As a final comment I would have liked to see the cultural British world placed within a broader comparative framework. Crosbie and Hampton themselves state that this is one of the aims of the volume. Their cultural British world is one “often precarious ‘system’” amid others, engaging equally with “small kingdoms and stateless tribes” and with “such empires as the Qing, the Ottoman and the Mughal,” not to mention the “newly emergent United States of America” (p. 7). Yet, this view of the cultural British world as a competing player on the world stage is not always clear in the chapters that follow. Michelle Tusan’s and John Carroll’s chapters concern the Ottoman Empire and Qing Empire, respectively. But, the emphasis on British actions on the ground, while necessary to explicate the cultural British world, obfuscates the subjectivity of the other imperial powers. Equally, there are multiple references to the United States scattered across these chapters. American consuls and missionaries appear briefly in Tusan’s chapter (p. 85), again as merchants in Carroll’s study (p. 138), and again in Bronwen Everill’s discussion of the settlers to Sierra Leone (p. 198). How this competition among empires for space, resources, and loyalty shaped the cultural British world is a question posed and left unanswered.

Still, there is much here to applaud. Even the question over the global context of the cultural British world is less a criticism than an area of research for future scholars to explore. By expanding the definition of the British world, by tracing culture’s circulation through its networks, and by demonstrating how “culture” itself can be a more encompassing field of study, these collected studies offer up many new ways to think about the histories of the British world and imperial expansion. The volume will no doubt provide a useful addition to the existing scholarship.

Notes

[1]. For the first of these see Carl Bridge and Kent Fedorowich, eds., British World: Diaspora, Culture and Identity (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2003).

[2]. Gary B. Magee and A. S. Thompson, Empire and Globalization: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c.1815-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Simon J. Potter, News and the British World: The Emergence of an Imperial Press System, 1876-1922 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003); Charles V. Reed, Royal Tourists, Colonial Subjects and the Making of a British World, 1860-1911 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016); and Hilary M. Carey, God's Empire: Religion and Colonialism in the British World, c. 1801-1908 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

[3]. Antoinette Burton, ed., After the Imperial Turn: Thinking with and through the Nation (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003); Catherine Hall, Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002); and John MacKenzie, Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion, 1880-1960 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988).

[4]. Richard Price, “One Big Thing: Britain, Its Empire, and Their Imperial Culture,” Journal of British Studies 45 (2006): 602-27.

Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=46275

Citation: Sabrina Fairchild. Review of Crosbie, Barry; Hampton, Mark, eds., The Cultural Construction of the British World. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. June, 2016.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=46275

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