Table of Contents

Chronology 1. Introduction 2. Civilization 3. Barbarism and the Imperial Remedy 4. Progress 5. Civilization Threatened 6. Standstill: The Case of China 7. Aftermath

About the Author

Michael Levin is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Goldsmith's College, University of London. He previously taught at the Universities of Leicester, Leeds and Wales and has been twice Visiting Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University. He is the author of Marx, Engels and Liberal Democracy (1989), The Spectre of Democracy: The Rise of Modern Democracy as Seen by its Critics (1992), and The Conditions of England Question: Carlyle, Mill, Engels (1998).

Reviews

"A penetrating study of an under-explored, but crucial, Victorian theme - Levin sheds much light on the concept often held to underpin Victorian thought, 'progress', by investigating both how its most famous exponent developed an account of what separated 'civilisation' from 'barbarism', and how it was possible not only to emerge from the latter to the former, but equally to fall back from civility to barbarity or a stagnant 'stationary' condition by failing to cultivate and reinforce a 'striving, go-ahead' entrepreneurial personality and British national character. This is a major study of one of the period's great themes which skilfully weaves together an account of Mill's political, philosophical, historical and imperial concerns."
-Gregory Claeys, University of London