Rarely does a single volume illustrate so clearly how new methods can improve an already venerable body of historiography. The distinguished historians and literary theorists who came together at the January 2007 conference that resulted in this book were motivated by Ann Stoler's recent suggestion that informal empire is an ‘unhelpful euphemism’. The essays in this book argue instead that despite a wide variety of views regarding the extent of exploitation, empire remains an important paradigm through which to view the Anglo-South American relationship.
The book's title is a bit misleading and could do with some qualifications. Rather than describing informal empire in Latin America, this book is specifically about British informal empire in South America. To narrow it further, six of the nine chapters are entirely about Argentina, with one other at least partially on that republic. A notably straightforward contribution by Malcolm Deas on Colombia should be read as the exception that proves the rule. Deas explains that as a country lacking trade and foreign interests, Colombia was not part of the informal empire of any other state throughout the nineteenth century. The concept of informal empire should obviously not be used as a blanket that covers all of South America, but rather as a paradigm for how Argentina, and perhaps a few other republics including Brazil, related to the outside world.
And even within these limited geographic parameters, the overall sense is that the informal empire was less hegemonic than historians over the past decades have tended to believe. Now-traditional descriptions of empire based on political or economic dominance, the so-called imperialism of free trade and its progeny, are being modified but not supplanted by scholarship focused on cultural aspects of imperialism. At its best, the extension of postcolonial theories to the study of Latin America brings illuminating results. Louise Guenther's chapter on the gendered discourses of Britons in Brazil provides new insights into the mentalities and prejudices of these merchants and their semi-insular communities, while pointing out in surprisingly vivid terminology how their surroundings ‘invaginated’ and transformed the merchants themselves. Such cultural history proves that imperial influences were a two-way street. Other literature-based chapters are less successful. Charles Darwin's impressions of Patagonia are in themselves interesting, but it takes a theory-driven leap of faith (rather than adherence to tangible evidence) to conclude that Darwin's descriptions of the landscape as ‘sublime’ made any difference in the Argentine authorities' decisions to wipe out the native populations of that undeniably visually striking region. As other chapters argue quite persuasively, Britain's overall cultural impact on Latin America in education, politics and civic life, was far less than that of Spain, Italy, and even France, despite the comparative dominance of British investments and trade through much of the region.
Such contributions from scholars noted for their adherence to newer literary theories help to convey a sense of the overall possibilities when such theories are applied to Latin America. However, the essays from seasoned political and economic historians best exemplify the most intriguing results of interdisciplinary postcolonial studies. Alan Knight and David Rock, eminent historians of Mexican and Argentine politics, respectively, contribute chapters suggesting the limitations of viewing the Anglo-Argentine relationship as an imperialist one. Both suggest that it is incorrect to state that Britain had a powerful influence on the culture of individual Argentines, or that either the Britons or Argentines who interacted with each other in the long nineteenth century believed that imperialism was in evidence. Perhaps the most telling example of this open mindedness of traditional historians to new methodologies is the fascinating chapter by Charles Jones on attempts by British banks to undermine political nationalism in Argentina between 1880 and 1892, an episode often portrayed as exemplifying British imperialism. His dissection of the mentalities of two of the leading participants in this crisis leads him to suggest that there may have been an informal empire in South America, but there was little imperialism in the intentions of the men who lived it. Jones quite bluntly criticises his own past scholarship for leaving out the personal, recognising his own intellectual transformation and his growing appreciation for the possibilities of blending innovative ideas with older styles of scholarship. As Jones's chapter shows, it is undoubtedly worthwhile for historians to learn new tricks. It is precisely this merging of more individual-centric cultural history with economic and political history that Andrew Thompson, in his conclusion, suggests should now be at the top of the agenda for historians of informal empire.
There are of course some weaknesses. Thompson is right to suggest that the study of informal empire in Latin America over the past two centuries would benefit from comparative approaches, linking the region both to the ‘British world’ and to the broader world of globalised capitalism. The consistent focus on British relationships with South American states and people comes at a cost, as the writers ignore other imperialist motivations such as British competition with other western powers. In any collection from various contributors, there will be inconsistencies and repetitions. For example, descriptions of the hoary historiography of the imperialism of free trade – Robinson, Gallagher, Platt, and so forth – were repeated in too many of the chapters. But overall this is a collection in which the editor sensibly allowed each contributor to speak for him or herself. The cumulative effect by the end of this book vindicates Matthew Brown's declaration in his introduction that the debate over informal empire remains worthwhile. It will be interesting to see over the next few years what historians influenced by these essays end up writing about Latin America.
