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A dramatic shift in British and French ideas about empire unfolded in the sixty years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century. As Jennifer Pitts shows in A Turn to Empire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Jeremy Bentham were among many at the start of this period to criticize European empires as unjust as well as politically and economically disastrous for the conquering nations. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the most prominent British and French liberal thinkers, including John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, vigorously supported the conquest of non-European peoples. Pitts explains that this reflected a rise in civilizational self-confidence, as theories of human progress became more triumphalist, less nuanced, and less tolerant of cultural difference. At the same time, imperial expansion abroad came to be seen as a political project that might assist the emergence of stable liberal democracies within Europe. Pitts shows that liberal thinkers usually celebrated for respecting not only human equality and liberty but also pluralism supported an inegalitarian and decidedly nonhumanitarian international politics. Yet such moments represent not a necessary feature of liberal thought but a striking departure from views shared by precisely those late-eighteenth-century thinkers whom Mill and Tocqueville saw as their forebears. Fluently written, A Turn to Empire offers a novel assessment of modern political thought and international justice, and an illuminating perspective on continuing debates over empire, intervention, and liberal political commitments

Imperialism --- Political science --- Liberalism --- Liberal egalitarianism --- History --- History. --- Great Britain --- France --- Pʻŭrangsŭ --- Frankrig --- Francja --- Frant︠s︡ii︠a︡ --- Prantsusmaa --- Francia (Republic) --- Tsarfat --- Tsorfat --- Franḳraykh --- Frankreich --- Fa-kuo --- Faguo --- Франция --- French Republic --- République française --- Peurancih --- Frankryk --- Franse Republiek --- Francland --- Frencisc Cynewīse --- فرنسا --- Faransā --- Franza --- Republica Franzesa --- Gallia (Republic) --- Hyãsia --- Phransiya --- Fransa --- Fransa Respublikası --- Franse --- Францыя --- Frantsyi︠a︡ --- Французская Рэспубліка --- Frantsuzskai︠a︡ Rėspublika --- Parancis --- Pransya --- Franis --- Francuska --- Republika Francuska --- Bro-C'hall --- Френска република --- Frenska republika --- França --- República Francesa --- Pransiya --- Republikang Pranses --- Γαλλία --- Gallia --- Γαλλική Δημοκρατία --- Gallikē Dēmokratia --- فرانسه --- Farānsah --- צרפת --- רפובליקה הצרפתית --- Republiḳah ha-Tsarfatit --- פראנקרייך --- 法国 --- 法蘭西共和國 --- Falanxi Gongheguo --- フランス --- Furansu --- フランス共和国 --- Furansu Kyōwakoku --- Francija --- Ranska --- Frankrike --- Colonies --- Liberty --- Social sciences --- France (Provisional government, 1944-1946) --- 18th century --- 19th century --- 프랑스 --- Falanxi --- Fa-lan-hsi --- 法蘭西 --- Frankrijk --- Frant︠s︡ --- Франц --- Frant︠s︡ Uls --- Франц Улс --- Liberalisme econòmic --- Liberalisme. --- Ciències polítiques --- Imperialisme --- Història --- França --- Gran Bretanya --- Colònies --- Ciències socials --- Idees polítiques --- Llibertat