Background
Semmel, Bernard was born on July 23, 1928 in New York City. Son of Samuel and Tillie (Beer) Semmel.
(In this stimulating history of the ideas behind George El...)
In this stimulating history of the ideas behind George Eliot's novels, Bernard Semmel explores Eliot's imaginative use of the theme of inheritance, as a metaphor for her political thinking. Through detailed analyses of Eliot's novels and other writings, and a study of the intellectual currents of the time, Semmel demonstrates how and why Eliot's views on inheritance provided central ideas for her fiction. Semmel uncovers Eliot's intent when she wrote of the obligations of inheritance both in the common meaning of the term, as in the transfer of goods and property from parents to children, and in the more metaphoric sense of the inheritance of both the benefits and burdens of the historical past, particularly those of the nation's culture and traditions. He believes Eliot's novels dwelt so insistently on the idea of inheritance in good part because she viewed herself as intellectually "disinherited," writing as she did at a time when much of England was being transformed from a traditional community to an alienating modern society, and when, moreover, she suffered from a painful estrangement from her family. In this thought-provoking study, Semmel dissects the politics of Eliot's novels, including Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, Romola Felix Holt, and Adam Bede, and convincingly displays the relationship between Eliot's variations on the theme of inheritance and her acceptance of Britain's traditional policies of compromise and reform. All those interested in Victorian literature, history, and political thought will appreciate Semmel's George Eliot and the Politics of National Inheritance.
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("Curiously, very little scholarly attention has been give...)
"Curiously, very little scholarly attention has been given to so important a field of study as modern 'social-imperialism,' and that has gone, almost exclusively, to its German, Italian, and French variants. Both the subject of British social-imperialism and that of the development of social-imperial thought, generally, have been badly neglected, a circumstance which may be regarded as justifying a special study."
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(The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism seeks to uncover some ...)
The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism seeks to uncover some of the intellectual origins of the imperialism of the classic period, the sources from which later theories of imperialism were constructed, and the character of the ideology which underlay the dismantling of the old colonial system and the construction of the Victorian Pax Britannica. The author discusses the development and diffusion of a number of the central arguments of the 'science' of political economy, from the standpoint of a historian rather than an economist, which were crucial not only to the construction of theories of capitalist imperialism, but also served as a spur both to efforts at colonization, and to establishing a British Workshop of the World.
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( As Great Britain and other Western nations built empire...)
As Great Britain and other Western nations built empires--both formal and informal--writers on economic and social questions developed theories to explain why and how advanced industrial states exercised control over colonial regions. Different schools of thought emerged: some anticipated the growth of a cosmopolitaneconomic order, others believed in a brutal imperialism necessary for an expanding capitalism, still others saw evil precapitalist forces at work. In The Liberal Ideal and the Demons of Empire, noted historian Bernard Semmel traces the evolution of the ideas about imperialism and discusses four major schools of thought: the classical economists, the social theorists, the national economists, and the Marxists. From Adam Smith to Lenin, the subject of colonialism--and then imperialism--remained controversial. Although classical economists offered visions of a prosperous world economy based on free trade, and liberal idealists argued that rational self-interest would eliminate aggressive mercantilism and wars of conquest, such "utopian" ideals proved elusive. Even defenders of capitalism noted contradictions between the harsh realities of the emerging industrial system and the optimistic economic theories that attempted to describe it. In the end the critics--including liberal sociologists, national economists, and Marxists--would win the day by defining imperialism in terms of historic demons: feudal aristocrats, medieval usurers, and evil empires. These ideas, Semmel concludes, became props of the liberal, socialist, and fascist ideologies of our time. "A generation ago, Richard Koebner traced the changing meanings of the word imperialism from its rather surprising Napoleonic beginnings. Now, building on a succession of books with which he has enriched the literature, Bernard Semmel addresses the wider question of the evolution in thought to which the evolution of the word was, so to speak, an index. Semmel's book will beunquestionably useful to historians--particularly those outside the confines of European expansion--and will be valuable as supplemental reading in college courses. One wonders if it will have the effect one would most like to see--on politicians, publicists, and praters who continue to use the word imperialism so inappropriately."--Robert K. Webb, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Bernard Semmel is Distinguished Professor of History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His studies of imperialism include Imperialism and Social Reform, Jamaican Blood and Victorian Conscience, and The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism. He has also written on Methodism, John Stuart Mill, and naval strategy.
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Semmel, Bernard was born on July 23, 1928 in New York City. Son of Samuel and Tillie (Beer) Semmel.
Bachelor, City College of New York, 1947. Master of Arts, Columbia University, New York City, 1951. Doctor of Philosophy, Columbia University, 1955.
Postgraduate, London School of Economics, 1959—1960.
With, National Citizens Common for Public Schools and Council for Finance Aid to Education, New York City, 1951-1955; assistant professor of history, Park College, Parkville, Missouri, 1956-1960; member of faculty, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1960-1991; professor of history, State University of New York, 1964-1991; department chairman, State University of New York, 1966-1969; Distinguished professor Graduate School, CUNY, 1991-1996. Visiting professor Columbia University, 1966-1967.
(The Rise of Free Trade Imperialism seeks to uncover some ...)
( As Great Britain and other Western nations built empire...)
("Curiously, very little scholarly attention has been give...)
(In this stimulating history of the ideas behind George El...)
(Clean, firm hardbacks and unmarked text. Books is in exce...)
(book)
Fellow Royal History Society. Member American History Association (professional division 1984-1986), Conference British Studies, Cosmos Club, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Maxine Loraine Guse, March 19, 1955. 1 child, Stuart Mill.