| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Robert J. Blyth. The Empire of the Raj: India, Eastern Africa and the Middle East, 1858–1947. (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2003. Pp. x, 270. $72.00.
Most histories of the British Empire stress its relations with the indigenous peoples it incorporated, while some prefer to emphasize its dealings with rival empires and other powers. The internal administrative details of the empire fell out of favor long ago, yet they are worth another look, and that is what this book by Robert J. Blyth provides.	1
When viewed up close, the singular entity called the British Empire dissolves into a kaleidoscope of competing jurisdictions and subempires. The book's title is somewhat misleading, for it does not discuss the Raj and all its neighbors but only the "western sphere": that is, Persia, Arabia, and East Africa. Even in that limited sphere, the fragmented nature of British rule caused a creeping paralysis that foretold its end.	2
The Raj, an empire within a larger empire, arose from necessity in the age of sailing ships, when a year could go by between sending a letter to London and receiving an answer. The technological revolutions of the late nineteenth century (steamships, the Suez Canal, and telegraph cables), the intrusion of other imperialist powers, and the rise of nationalism changed the nature of India's relationship with the metropole. This is the story of how "an expanding metropole wrested control of the western sphere from an un-cooperative Indian Empire" (p. 2), but also of how "the Imperial government ... was frustrated by this Indian obscurantism time and again" (p. 212).	. . .

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