Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire by Jan Morris

Pax Britannica: Climax of an Empire Reviews

• 
  Martin

  A remarkable book that provides a good snapshot of the British Empire as it was in 1897, and which really helps one's understanding of the magnitude, extent, impact, and influence of the Empire.
  
  Lots of interesting facts (about England, the Empire, and its many colonies); and a very readable book, except maybe for the last 25-odd pages, which were trying my patience (chapters 25 & 26). Did I also detect on the author's part a little bias against the Irish?
  
• 
  Gerald Sinstadt

  The year 1897 is the peg upon which Jan Morris hangs her overview of the British Empire in the hour of its greatest glory. 1897 because it was the year of Victoria's golden jubilee, Queen for sixty years. As we approach a similar milestone in the reign of Elizabeth II the book acquires added piquancy.
  
  All over the map of the world in 1897 red marked the extent of British influence: "a begrudging kind of paradise," Morris calls it. A paradoxical paradise, too, for there was little uniformity to bind the various patches of land - from tiny atolls to semi-continents - which variably ruled themselves while always being subject to Victoria's government. "Legally," the author writes, "there was no such thing as a British Empire. It had no constitutional meaning. Physically, too, it was a kind of fiction, or bluff, in that it implied a far stronger power at the centre than really existed."
  
  But it worked. Strengths and weaknesses everywhere, but still it worked. There can be no greater praise for this book than to say that it encompasses the whole, black, white and grey, while constantly illuminating it with the detail. I quickly abandoned making notes; they were already too numerous to marshall sensibly. Page after page offers a telling vignette, a memorable phrase. At random, then, this miniature of life in the Raj: "The soldiers flirted in the public gardens. The officers played polo, sailed their yachts in the harbour, and sometimes went to cockfights, abetted by local Irishmen with fingers along the sides of their noses." In a few dozen words, the reader is taken there, seeing it as it was.
  
  This is serious history, seriously told, always enlivened, never cheapened, by Morris's love of a quirky anecdote. There are many but one, concerning William Packenham from a passage on memorable Royal Navy commanders, must suffice: "... when an elderly lady at a civic luncheon asked him if he was married, he replied courteously, 'No, madam, no. I keep a loose woman in Edinburgh.'"
  
  Pax Britannica is a worthy successor to the first in Jan Morris's brilliant trilogy, and an irresistible appetiser for the third.
• 
  Pamela

  In this second book of the Pax Britannica, we have all of the Empire from Newfoundland in 1583 to Bermuda in 1607 when 150 Englishmen shipwrecked on the reef during a hurricane and consequently, inspired William Shakespeare to write The Tempest. The European possessions are here, too. Gibralter, the Channel Islands, Malta, and Ireland, always Ireland. British Guiana and the Falklands, the Cape Colonies, as well. All of these and more join the big ones from the first part of this immense trilogy. Morris discusses the status of the British Empire as it existed on the day of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. This represents the height of empire and focuses on the self-satisfied pride of the populace in their position in the world of nations. Morris describes all aspects of empire and the style of government, architecture, technology, economics, and religion in each colony or possession. He also foreshadows the troubles to come by showcasing some of the discontent. Many of the colonies were, by this time, showing tiny gleamings of a sense of nationalism and, even in England, disenchantment with the idea of colonialism was seeing a faint start.
• 
  Lyn Elliott

  Jan Morris wrote this in the 1960s, well before post-colonial theory was properly formulated or the fall out from the dismantling of colonial empires was as evident as it is today.
  But I would recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone even remotely interested in the politics, culture and societies of the lands that fell within the scope of British rule, or in the phenomenon of an empire that reached to most continents yet was based in a small island off the coast of Europe.
  
  In 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, the British Empire appeared to be at its peak. Its glories were celebrated in all colonies (less enthusiastically in some than others). It was held together, she remarks near the end of the book, by a combination of force (in occupied lands) and sentiment. The New Imperialism was in full swing in England itself, and the millions of Britons who had emigrated and settled in the colonies identified very strongly with England as the mother country. And although the feelings of native inhabitants of the countries occupied and settled by the British varied, the glories of the Empire and its sovereign were celebrated around the globe.
  
  Morris writes that she set out to try 'to evoke the feeling of Britishness in 1897 as it was manifested throughout the globe' (p.11). She has organised the book primarily in themes, ranging from migrations, glory, caste (which she uses often where I would use class, but nevertheless the fine gradings of status, inclusion and exclusion are dealt with0, the armies and navies that maintained British power, pioneers and settlers. architecture, dying young and the British empire as a development agency. More time is given to India than any other colony, appropriate to its central importance to British trade, wealth and sense of importance in the world.
  She makes broad general statements that allow you to pout together things you haven't put together before, and to see familiar things in a new light. the broad weep is backed up with a glorious mass of anecdote. Sometimes the facts get lost in the sweep of a fine phrase or clever thought, but overall I found I enjoyed the broad sweep and general sparkling tone that didn't mind even the inaccuracies I picked up about my own part of the world, Adelaide inSouth Australia, where she has surveyor Light select the site of the future capital of South Australia by climbing a bluff near Holdfast Bay. There is not a hill, cliff or bluff for miles. There would have been a sand dune he could have climbed but that's it.
  
  This broad survey, remarkable in its scope and depth, is a marvellous read, coloured throughout with Morris's sometimes sardonic view of the English and an eye for comedy and farce as well as pomp and circumstance.
  
  On every page is an idea, a sentence that cries out to be noted - but I haven't done it because my notes would be far too long and I would rather re-read the lively prose of the original.
  
  Now to gear myself for the wars and unravelling of the twentieth century.
• 
  James Carroll

  A remarkably detailed snapshot of life in the strangest empire of all during 1897, the year of its symbolic leader’s Diamond Jubilee. I implore anyone who reads this to get the latest edition with Morris’ 2012 introduction. Her reassessment doesn’t undercut what she wrote in the 60s, but the sobriety of distance makes her reflect very differently on the pomp, bluster, misconception and ‘inbred racism’ of the age. This only heightens the sense that while reading Pax Britannica proper, you are not actually reading it at all: you are there, back amongst one nation’s blinding celebration; and as a result you are closer than you thought you could be to understanding its infectious, manic, hysterical charm.
• 
  Al Berry

  An good follow up book to the Book, Heavens’s Command, continues the Survey style of the first book, just further along in time, a look at Victorian Empire at it’s Apogee.
• 
  Robert Davidson

  Superb. The second book of the trilogy which i regard as the best History written so far on the British Empire. The Author, with a laconic wit takes the reader on a tour of the many Imperial possessions interweaving the human stories in their time and place. So many people came from those small Islands and settled in so many diverse locations, provides us with an amazing array of lives led. Despite the flaws of the British Empire which the Author describes in detail one is left with the impression it did more good than harm. The reminders are still with us today to view such as, visiting an old Church in Ballycastle N.I. where the wall plaques list the Soldiers who fought in the Indian Mutiny, or the former Hill Station built by the Royal Engineers at Zomba in Malawi and here in Canada walking through the incomparable Stanley Park in Vancouver. jan morris is a very good Writer.
• 
  Lisa

  I didn't find this exceedingly interesting but it was ok. It focused a lot on India. As a Canadian I didn't get much out of it and the story of the founding of Ottawa as the capital total fallacy which makes me wonder what else was false in this.
• 
  Joshua McCune

  I read Pax Britannica over a period of around 2 months, and it’s a very worthy book to spend so much time on.
  Jan Morris (though, on my 1979 Penguin Books copy, she is known as James) discusses the state of the British Empire, using the 1895 Jameson Raid as her central point, fundamentally with an emphasis of 1897 - when the ‘Pax Britannica’ was, as the book lays out, at its height in terms of its imperial power over its subjects at the time. The book is - on the whole, though with some clear leanings at times - diplomatic in its discussion, thematic in its structure, and entirely focused upon the lives of those who created the Imperial ways and imperial policies, both contemporarily and retrospectively, and, to an equal extent, the people involved both in Britain and abroad; its subjects, lives changed for decades under British rule. Jan is clearly well-versed in the subject, but this does mean there assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge on the subject. When this book was initially published in 1968, of course, this was much more well known; it was within living memory for many, many more than it perhaps is today.
  The structure is a massive selling point. Instead of being chronological, which might make it difficult to follow in its discussion of life across the whole Empire, Morris has structured this thematically, with sub-sections inside chapters on key elements, social, economic, and political, across the Empire and beyond. This means it can be picked up and put down at any point, and aside from some perhaps questionable section orders (Chapter 13 may be better placed towards the beginning, for instance), this book is easy to follow, and encourages the reader to reflect upon, in some ways admire, in many ways criticise, but fundamentally to recognise the British Empire for the problematic time of period that it was. One key aspect of the thematic structure is the use of poetry, quotes, and verbatim ideologies posed throughout, with a particularly strong emphasis on Rudyard Kipling‘s words, but with words from imperialists and opposers alike, to guide the reader effortlessly through the time period, as if they themselves were living the days being told. As some have noted in prior reviews, there’s a certain derision towards our non-English neighbours and this is no more evident than towards the end, a complete discussion about Irish citizens being perhaps the most explicitly biased section of it all. At its crux though, this is an incredibly well-written book, and is very much worth reading, whether you have prior knowledge of the Empire, or whether, like myself, you have very little knowledge of what went on at the time, an understandably embarrassing era for many today - one which is trying more and more to be forgotten and ignored by those on both sides of the era.
• 
  Alex Anderson

  “To be born British, is to win in the lottery of life.”
  
  History told as it ought to be told: with a heavy dose of verisimilitude and a light touch.
  
  Jan Morris is a gifted and eloquent writer who has thoroughly researched and become one with her subject. This monumental trilogy, the Pax Britannica, is a labour of love that deftly and artfully brings the subject to life.
  
  This volume is the 2nd volume of the series. It covers one of the most interesting and exciting periods in Britain’s long, rich goldmine of history.
  
  This was the audiobook version. Masterful narration, fits the subject matter absolutely perfectly by Roy McMillan.
• 
  Andrew McClarnon

  Truly mind expanding, a series of snappy essays that paint a portrait of the empire at its 'peak'. I love the footnotes that pepper most pages and anchor the anecdotes that form the basis of the text. The book describes the breadth of the moment, rather than the journey (towards or away), and in that way can appear rather disjointed, but allowable in the larger picture of the three books.
• 
  Wayne

  2nd book in the trilogy for me. A wonderful read.I really enjoy the writing of Jan Morris. So much effort and research must have gone into the writing of these works. For someone like me who is interested in the history of the British Empire these books are invaluable.
• 
  Bill Steele

  The central volume of the trilogy, describing the Empire at the time of the Jubilee in 1897. Described in a very perceptive way, with a wry humour, and more detailed than you'd expect given the volume of material.
• 
  Jill

  Audiobook. Loved it.
• 
  Ellie Mackin

  Very much suffers from "middle of a trilogy syndrome" also TW lots of racist slurs, could do with a serious update, although still an interesting read.
• 
  Nicholas Woode-Smith

  Detailed review coming soon.
• 
  Constantine

  3 Hardcover volumes
• 
  Patrick

  This is essential history.
  
  Amazon review:
  I'm in the midst of reading the trilogy, and I must say that, as a history major and history buff, I've never come across a history so well-told and of such consistent quality. And by "quality" I mean not only the quality of the prose itself but the editing. Those of us who read for pleasure and edification are aware of the sorry state of today's editing, or shall I say absence of editing. We've grown so accustomed to typos and repetition and horrible grammar, so tired of shouting to ourselves, "Where the hell is the editing?" that we find the meticulously edited Pax Britannica like a drink of cool, clear water in the desert.
  
  The above comment can be applied to all volumes of the trilogy. Climax of an Empire may give one the impression that Morris is an Imperialist himself. And why not? At its height the British Empire was indeed a splendid edifice which, on balance, was a noble cause.
  
  Yet, reading the final volume of the trilogy, Farewell The Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat, one can see that Morris has no illusions. Being a Welsh nationalist himself (now, herself), author James (now Jan) Morris certainly can't be accused of being a tory historian. Even in Climax of Empire, describing Pax Britannica at its most exhuberant, Morris is able to step back:
  
  "In Africa they would try...to weld the ancient orders into the structure of Empire, exactly fitting each measure of responsibility into an imperial pattern, so that the pettiest pagan wizard could play his part in the grand design. But by these visionary means nobody was satisfied. The Empire lost part of its point, and the Africans found themselves stuck in a bog of tradition, from which before long all the more intelligent ones did their best to escape."
  
  So, those of us with today's politically correct scorn of the benighted past need not censure ourselves for the irresistible delight we get from reading passages like:
  
  "Throughout the length and breadth of the Empire a well-spoken, reasonably well-connected young man, with a few introductions in the right places, and a sufficiently entertaining line in small talk, could travel by himself without feeling the need for a hotel."
  
  Or here, where he likens Queen Victoria to the Empire itself:
  
  "...proud and often overbearing, but with an unexpected sweetness at the heart; suburban and sometimes vulgar, sentimental, in old age less beautiful than imposing; girlishly beguiled by the mysteries of the Orient, maternally considerate towards the Natives, stubbornly determined to hang on to her possessions...."
  
  The entire trilogy reads this way. And the footnotes are just as delightful, often gossipy, often trenchant:
  
  "When there were no positive or acceptable rules to follow, they were told, they must consult two simple principles: 'Equity or Good Conscience'.
  
  [Footnote] "'Whichever,' cynics used to add, 'is the less.'"
  
  The fact is, that despite the real depredations by the Portuguese and Belgian imperialists, which gave imperialism a bad name, British imperialism, in and of itself, was benign, establishing peace, justice, integrity and stability, where before had reigned unbridled murder, tyranny, corruption and chaos. That this was only a veneer which would crumble as soon as the British left, says more about the resilience of barbarism than the merits of Pax Britannica. To be sure, only one "gift" of modernity seems to have been a welcomed and permanent addition to local cultures: guns and machetes. Here were far more efficient means for settling scores than spears and stones. And as we see today, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and excepting India, the Anglo-Saxon dominions and a few others, civilization -- call it imperialism or colonialism -- seems to have made no impression at all.
  
  After the fall of the Roman Empire it took Europe centuries before Rome's former colonies rose on their own to the level of civilization imposed by Pax Romana. So it's no coincidence that the title of this grand trilogy, this masterpiece of historical narrative, is Pax Britannica.
• 
  Love

  A beautifully written tour of the British empire around the turn of the century, arguably the very climax of that complex and fascinating institution. The author takes the approach of writing only about what she personally finds interesting and can spend a few dozen pages on some small near forgotten Caribbean port she finds intriguing.
• 
  William King

  A very fine, impressionistic history of the high water mark of the British Empire by a writer who was quite obviously besotted with it. Morris can really write and catches the very well the glamour of the Empire as well as its tawdriness.
• 
  Tony

  James (before he became Jan) observes the British Empire stylishly in his trilogy which includes Farewell The Trumpets and Heaven's Command.
• 
  Mark

  brilliant
• 
  Dianne

  Wonderful. I love her ironic twists.
• 
  Barbara

  Wonderful.