The Written Record

Many were pleased to be called imperialists, determined to “take up the White Man’s burden … To seek another’s profit. And work another’s gain.” In the words of the poet laureate of empire, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), the United States too must

Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.

Take up the White Man’s burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill All the mouth of Famine

One of the leading intellectuals in the socialist movement in Britain was Beatrice Potter, who became the wife of the Fabian socialist and administrator Sidney Webb. In My Apprenticeship she addressed the question, “Why I Became a Socialist.”

Can I describe in a few sentences the successive steps in my progress towards Socialism?

The new “navalism,” which already had assertive advocates in Britain and Germany, derived many of its doctrines from the writings of an American officer, Captain Alfred T. Mahan (1840-1914). Mahan’s book The Influence of Sea Power upon History (1890), and his later works assigned navies a place of preeminent importance in determining power status and found an influential audience at home and abroad, especially in Germany, Britain, and Japan.

Bureaucracy is one of those words that has changed in connotation while also describing a major development that is part of “modernization.” As nation-states became ever more centralized and powerful, they tended to take on more and more responsibilities with respect to their citizens. Agencies of government, that is bureaus, were created to administer the various aspects of government: foreign affairs, excise and taxation, the police, social welfare, national education, and so forth.

In June 1867, the Dinner of the Three Emperors brought together Alexander II, czar of Russia, the czarevich (the future Alexander III), and the future emperor William I (then king of Prussia) at the Cafe Anglais in Paris to dine most royally, as the menu indicates. Guests had a choice of soups and could substitute fritters of beef brain steeped in Seville orange juice for one of the main courses. Otherwise all foods and wines were served to everyone.

Soups

Imperatrice
Fontanges

Intermediate Course

Souffle a la Reine
Fillet of sole Venetian
Collops of turbot au gratin

The Song of the Shirt,” by the minor English poet Thomas Hood (1799-1845), was prompted by a London news report about the arrest of a seamstress for pawning articles belonging to her employer. Paid by the piece, she could earn at the maximum seven shillings a week, on which she was expected to support herself and two young children.

Work—work—work
Till the brain begins to swim; Work—work—work
Till the eyes are heavy and dim! Seam, and gusset, and band, Band, and gusset, and seam,
Till over the buttons I fall asleep And sew them on in a dream!
0! Men, with Sisters dear!