Edmund Burke and the Conservative Logic of Empire

Book excerpt: Edmund Burke, long considered modern conservatismÕs founding father, is also widely believed to be an opponent of empire. However, Daniel OÕNeill turns that latter belief on its head. This fresh and innovative book shows that Burke was a passionate supporter and staunch defender of the British Empire in the eighteenth century, whether in the New World, India, or Ireland.Ê MoreoverÑand against a growing body of contemporary scholarship that rejects the very notion that Burke was an exemplar of conservatismÑOÕNeill demonstrates that BurkeÕs defense of empire was in fact ideologically consistent with his conservative opposition to the French Revolution. BurkeÕs logic of empire relied on two opposing but complementary theoretical strategies: Ornamentalism, which stressed cultural similarities between ÒcivilizedÓ societies, as he understood them, and Orientalism, which stressed the putative cultural differences distinguishing ÒsavageÓ societies from their ÒcivilizedÓ counterparts. This incisive book also shows that BurkeÕs argument had lasting implications, as his development of these two justifications for empire prefigured later intellectual defenses of British imperialism.Ê