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Lord Cromer: Victorian Imperialist, Edwardian Proconsul
In the heyday of Empire just before the First World War, Lord Cromer was second only to Lord Curzon in fame and public esteem. In the days when Cairo and Calcutta represented the twin poles of British power in Asia and Africa, Cromer's commanding presence seemed to radiate the essential spirit of imperial rule. In this first modern biography Roger Owen charts the life of the man revered by the British and hated by today's Egyptians, the real ruler of Egypt for a quarter of a century.
474 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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About the author
Roger Owen
50 books15 followersEdward Roger John Owen was an English historian who wrote several classic works on the history of the modern Middle East. His research interests included the economic, social and political history of the Middle East, especially Egypt, from 1800 to the present, as well as the theories of imperialism, including military occupations.
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January 10, 2011
Very fine biography that places Cromer in context with regards to British imperial policy at the end of the 19th/early 20th century.
Cromer comes across as being enormously able, but also subject to the then commonplace racial and cultural assumptions about the role of Europeans in the Middle East. It is interesting how his views gradually shift from a liberal outlook to something far more conservative, underpinned by the notion that the Empire was the keystone of British greatness.
Some interesting parallels (albeit not always explicitly made in the book) between then and the recent nation building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular the corrupting belief in the indispensable role of the coloniser/nation builder and hence the insistence that nothing good will come from the local populations if left to their own devices. Also, the utopian belief that disparate populations in Egypt could some how be remade into a new society, radically different from what they were, sounds depressingly familiar.
Cromer comes across as being enormously able, but also subject to the then commonplace racial and cultural assumptions about the role of Europeans in the Middle East. It is interesting how his views gradually shift from a liberal outlook to something far more conservative, underpinned by the notion that the Empire was the keystone of British greatness.
Some interesting parallels (albeit not always explicitly made in the book) between then and the recent nation building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In particular the corrupting belief in the indispensable role of the coloniser/nation builder and hence the insistence that nothing good will come from the local populations if left to their own devices. Also, the utopian belief that disparate populations in Egypt could some how be remade into a new society, radically different from what they were, sounds depressingly familiar.
Displaying 1 of 1 review