The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj
by David Gilmour
- Used
- Fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Fine/Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0374283540
- ISBN 13
- 9780374283544
- Seller
-
Arlington, Virginia, United States
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About This Item
Between 1837 and 1901, less than 100,000 Britons at any one time managed an empire of 300 million people spread over the vast area that now includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Burma. How was this possible, and what were these people like? The British administration in India took pride in its efficiency and broad-mindedness, its devotion to duty and its sense of imperial grandeur, but it has become fashionable to deprecate it for its arrogance and ignorance. In this balanced, witty, and multi-faceted history, David Gilmour goes far to explain the paradoxes of the "Anglo-Indians," showing us what they hoped to achieve and what sort of society they thought they were helping to build. The Ruling Caste principally concerns the officers of the legendary India Civil Service--each of whom to perform as magistrate, settlement officer, sanitation inspector, public-health officer, and more for the million or so people in his charge. Gilmour extends his study to every level of the administration and to the officers' women and children, so often ignored in previous works. The Ruling Caste is the best book yet on the real trials and triumphs of an imperial ruling class; on the dangerous temptations that an empire's power encourages; on relations between governor and governed, between European and Asian. No one interested in politics and social history can afford to miss this book.
Synopsis
David Gilmour is a novelist who’s earned the praise of literary figures as diverse as William Burroughs and Northrop Frye, and publications as diverse as The New York Times and People Magazine . His latest novel, Lost Between Houses , was a national bestseller in Canada and was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. Gilmour was film critic for CBC-TV’s The Journal and The National for eleven years, and was the host of Gilmour on the Arts , a Gemini-award-winning arts talk show, for four years. He lives in Toronto.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Books of the World (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- RWARE0000003351
- Title
- The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj
- Author
- David Gilmour
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First American Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0374283540
- ISBN 13
- 9780374283544
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- February 2006
- Keywords
- history, social history, government, politics, India Civil Service, colonies, colonialism, imperialism, England, Britain, Great Britain, British India, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, South Asia
- Bookseller catalogs
- India; Politics & Government; History; Asia; Britain;
- Size
- 8vo
Terms of Sale
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