Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire is a book by David Cannadine

David Cannadine

Sir David Nicholas Cannadine, FBA is a British historian, known for a number of books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy and Ornamentalism. He is also notable as a commentator and broadcaster on British public life, especially the monarchy. He serves as the generaleditor...

 about British perceptions of the British Empire. Cannadine argues that class, rank and status were more important to the British Empire than race The title of the work Ornamentalism is a direct reference to Edward Said's book Orientalism

Orientalism (book)

Orientalism is a book published in 1978 by Edward Said that has been highly influential and controversial in postcolonial studies and other fields. In the book, Said effectively redefined the term "Orientalism" to mean a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the...

, which argues the existence of prejudiced outsider interpretations of the East, shaped by the attitudes of European imperialism in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Analysis

Peter J. Marshall argues that Cannadine makes two arguments in Ornamentalism:

• 1. "...the history of the British empire and the history of Britain itself are inseparable and must be studied as a seamless whole"
• 2. "the high days of British imperialism, that is from about 1850 to about 1950, the history of the empire and that of Britain were brought together by a British commitment to reproduce overseas the kind of hierarchical society that, Cannadine believes, existed in Britain"

Criticism

Ornamentalism has been criticised for underplaying the racist element of the civilising mission.

External links

• Prejudice behind the pomp and baubles, Times Higher