Book Review: Exhibition and Empire

I just finished with the first volume of Pax Britannica by Jan Morris.  She (he, originally) is a SUPERB writer.  I originally and coincidentally had read Jan Morris' book on a foreign perspective on Abraham Lincoln.  I had liked her writing even then, but never followed up on her other works (which turns out to be quite extensive).

In this trilogy, she has taken a pontillistic approach to describing the British Empire - meaning, that she recounts an interesting episode here and another interesting episode there.  And soon when you step back, a fuller picture of the empire emerges.  In this first volume she traces the rise of Empire.  In particular, I really liked the small sketches of quirky people who went about building an empire without actually knowing they were doing so, and without the royalty and politicians back in Great Britain knowing that this was happening either!

I was quite fascinated by the chapter on Thugees.  Jan Morris goes into a fair bit of color and detail in terms of how the Thugees operated, especially in the Bihar region of Northern India.  She vividly describes the elaborate rituals and governing philosophy that ran through the cult.  The story of the British officer who cracked down on this cult and what drove him to do so is an interesting vignette, that anticipates the animating principle for the overall empire.  Pierce Brosnan starred in a movie about the Thugees called The Deceivers.

Crystal Palace

By far the best chapter in this first volume was the 'The Great Exhibition' of 1851 in Hyde Park organized primarily by Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's husband).   Two interest aspects - it was self-funded and ultimately profitable.  Also, it showcased Britain's Industrial might and inspired the population of Great Britain to participate in the expansion of Empire.  The best exhibit in this was the Crystal Palace or The Great Shalimar.  Millions of British citizens visited this great building and were inspired to see technological advances from all over the world displayed in one place for the first time.

Viewmaster Expo 67 reels

I suppose this chapter intrigued me also because of the Montreal '67 world expo that took place when my Dad was in the US and when he was a post doctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University.  He had brought back 'view master' reels of it.  As a child of 8 or 9 years old growing up on a college campus in India, I remember watching these 3D pictures of amazing exhibits from all around the world and was transported into different cultures and different achievements of the late 60s.  In particular this was the age of the Apollo missions that held the world entranced.

I can only imagine how one hundred years prior to that, in the 1850s in Victorian England, the English were inspired.

Jan Morris' excellent first volume overall covers countries of the British Empire all over the world from the West Indies to South Africa to Egypt and is quite a lovely read!  I am looking forward to the two more volumes left in this trilogy (Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire and Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat).