Hegel, war and the tragedy of imperialism

This article contextualises Hegel's writings on international order, especially those concerning war and imperialism. The recurring theme is the tragic nature of the struggles for recognition which are instantiated by these phenomena. Section one examines Hegel's analysis of the Holy Roman Empire in the context of French incursions into German territories, as that analysis was developed in his early essay on ‘The German Constitution’ (1798–1802). The significance of his distinction between the political and civil spheres is explored, with particular attention being paid to its implications for Hegel's theory of nationalism. The second section examines Hegel's development of the latter theory in The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), stressing the tragic interpenetration of ‘culture’ and intersubjective recognition. A recurring theme here is the influence of this theory on Hegel's interpretation of Napoleon's World-Historic mission, as that was revealed in his contemporaneous letters. Section three traces the tragic dynamic underlying the discussion of war between civilised states in The Philosophy of Right (1821). Section four examines three other types of imperial action in Hegel's mature writings, particularly The Philosophy of History (1832). These are relations between civilised states and culturally developed yet politically immature societies; colonial expansion motivated by capitalist under-consumption; and conflict between civilised states and barbarous peoples. It is concluded that it is misleading to claim that Hegel glorified conflict and war, and that he did not see domination by ‘civilised states’ as the ‘final stage’ of World History.     

Book reviews

CHINA

JUSTIN JON RUDELSON. Oasis Identities, Uyghur Nationalism along China's Silk Road. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. xv, 209 pp. Acknowledgments, maps, illustrations, bibliography, index. US$42.50, hardcover; US$16.50, paper.

ROSS TERRILL. Mao: a Biography. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1995. 524 pp. Bibliographic note, reference notes, index. A$24.95, paper.

ROSS TERRILL. Madame Mao: the White‐Boned Demon. Sydney: Hale and Iremonger, 1995. 466 pp. Bibliographic note, reference notes, index. A$24.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

EIJI OGUMA. Tan'itsu minzoku shinwa no kigen [The origins of the myth of the homogeneous nation]. Tokyo: Shinyosha, 1995, 1997. 450 pp. ¥3800, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

H. Th. CHABOT. Kinship, Status and Gender in South Celebes. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1996. 291 pp. Author's biography, author's bibliography, appendix, bibliography, three indexes, photographic illustrations. No price given, paper.

GREG POULGRAIN. The Genesis of Konfrontasi: Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia 1945–1965. Bathurst: Crawford House Publishing; London: C. Hurst and Co Ltd, 1998. xxvi, 322 pp. Foreword by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, introduction, map, photographs, index. A$29.95, paper.

M. J. C. SCHOUTEN. Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society: Minahasa, 1677–1983. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xiv, 334 pp. Index. No price given, paperback.

GENERAL ASIA

KERRIE L. MACPHERSON (ed). Asian Department Stores. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998. x, 309 pp. Preface, introduction, notes, references, index. £40.00, hardcover.

PETER P. ROGERS, KAZI F. JALAL, BINDU N. LOHANI, GENE M. OWENS, CHANG‐CHANG YU, CHRISTIAN M. DUFOURNAUD and JUN BI. Measuring Environmental Quality in Asia. Cambridge: Harvard Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Asian Development Bank's Office of Environment and Social Development, distributed by Harvard University Press, 1997. vii, 368 pp. Foreword, preface, acknowledgments, notes on contributors, abbreviations and acronyms, appendices. US$30.00, paper.     

Integrating Stable Isotope and Zooarchaeological Analyses in Historical Archaeology: A Case Study from the Urban Nineteenth-Century Commonwealth Block Site,Melbourne, Australia

This paper presents the first use of bone collagen stable isotope analyses for the purpose of reconstructing historical animal husbandry and trade practices in Australia. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 51 domesticate and commensal specimens demonstrate that meats consumed at the mid to late nineteenth-century Commonwealth Block site in Melbourne derived from animals with a diverse range of isotopic signatures. Potential factors contributing to this diversity including animal trade and variability in local animal husbandry practices are discussed. From these results we suggest that stable isotope-based paleodietary reconstructions have significant potential to illuminate a variety of human-animal relations in Australia’s historical period as well as other New World contexts.     

The Politics of Open Defecation: Informality,Body, and Infrastructure in Mumbai

This paper examines the politics of open defecation by focusing on everyday intersections of the body and infrastructure in the metabolic city, which produces profoundly unequal opportunities for fulfilling bodily needs. Specifically, it examines how open defecation emerges in Mumbai's informal settlements through everyday embodied experiences, practices and perceptions forged in relation to the materialities of informality and infrastructure. It does so by tracing the micropolitics of provision, access, territoriality and control of sanitation infrastructures; everyday routines and rhythms, both of people and infrastructures; and experiences of disgust and perceptions of dignity. It also examines open defecation as embodied spatial and temporal improvisations in order to investigate the socially differentiated efforts and risks that it entails. More broadly, the paper seeks to deepen understandings of the relationship between the body, infrastructure and the sanitary/unsanitary city.     

J.A. Symonds,socialism and the crisis of sexuality in fin-de-siècle Britain

This article analyses the theory of sexuality, personality and politics developed by the literary critic John Addington Symonds (1840–1893). Sections 1 and 2 introduce Symonds’ changing reputation as a modernist theorist of ‘sexual inversion’ (homosexuality). Section 3 examines his conceptualization of the processes whereby an individual can sublimate sexual urges to create a harmonious and unalienated personality which acknowledges the need to combine transgressive self-expression with social convention. Section 4 demonstrates how this theory led Symonds to endorse an eroticized form of democratic socialism, while Section 5 explores the culmination of Symonds’ thought in a form of pantheistic idealism. This research is significant in that it extends our understanding of socialism and sexuality into areas that are marginalized and yet historically important.     

Children's interdependent mobility: compositions,collaborations and compromises

This paper discusses findings from Australian research that used a qualitative and participatory methods approach to understand how children develop and negotiate their everyday mobility. Children's mobility negotiations are discussed in reference to interactions with parents, peers and places; journeys in relation to their multi-modality, compositionality and temporality; and mobility formations in terms of ‘companionship’ – travel companions, companion devices and ambient companions. Children's mobility is characterised by interdependencies that both enable and configure this mobility. Three themes – compositions, collaborations and compromises – are used to detail and describe some of the ways these interdependencies take shape and unfold.