Keywords
Burke
How to Cite
Burke, Cultural Difference, and the Problem of Imperial Critique. (2018). The Political Science Reviewer, 42(1), 266-271. https://politicalsciencereviewer.wisc.edu/index.php/psr/article/view/568
Abstract
Edmund Burke and the Conservative Logic of Empire.
By Daniel I. O’Neill. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016.
272p $34.95 paperback.
The two primary connected claims of Daniel O’Neill’s book are, first, that, far from being an anti-imperial exemplar, Edmund Burke was actually a fervent imperialist who justifies empire as a civilizing force in the world; and second, that attending to what O’Neill calls this “conservative logic of empire” usefully complicates the recent scholarly emphasis on liberalism’s entanglements with empire. O’Neill’s book makes an important contribution in synthesizing Burke’s diverse writings on empire, and it offers a productive corrective to oversimplified depictions of Burke as an anti-imperialist.