Joseph Chamberlain
A
Most Radical Imperialist
Travis L. Crosby
London: I.B. Tauris, 2011
Hardback. ix-271 pages. ISBN 9781848857537. £59.50
Reviewed
by Jane G.V. McGaughey
Royal
Military College of Canada
Understatement is hardly the device
one would use to describe the personalities from Britain’s age of High Imperialism. Of
these men who “painted the world red”, Joseph Chamberlain supposedly is one of
its notable failures, the most famous politician never to become prime
minister. This was a man whose obstinacy strained his personal relationships
and scuttled his political ambitions. Consequently, understatement is certainly
not the theme of Travis L. Crosby’s new biography, Joseph Chamberlain: A Most Radical Imperialist. Power, Crosby argues, was what defined Chamberlain’s career—the
quest to attain it led to triumph and disaster and a public life that
continually fell short of the greater expectations of the man. However, this
biography suggests that it is a departure from the familiar failure narrative. Crosby
clearly states on p. 3 that his aim is not to focus on Chamberlain’s
disappointments, but “to place power at the centre of Chamberlain’s private
life and public behaviour”. Specific incidents from Chamberlain’s background
and early life are to be our indicators to greater revelations regarding
possible origins for the man’s drive to accomplish his political will and best
others along the way.
This proposal suggests a
psychoanalytical approach, which one might expect from the co-editor of Psychohistory: Readings in the Method of
Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and History (1987), nearly a quarter of a
century ago. It is a method which, given the careers of Chamberlain’s sons
Austen and Neville, and the turbulent relationship Chamberlain had with his own
party leaders, could reveal a great deal about how private lives impact public
policies. However, this is one of many possible analytical avenues that Crosby never fully realises. What this biography does
present is a meticulously researched narrative of Chamberlain’s involvement in
the great debates and events that characterised the turn of the twentieth
century in Britain: Irish Home Rule, the South African War, imperialist
agendas, and tariff reform. As an introduction to high politics, the biography
is a success; however when the text appears to set up new avenues of inquiry
regarding Chamberlain the results become decidedly mixed.
There are several strengths in
Crosby’s work, in particular his attention to detail, which is visible both in
the rich footnotes he has provided, and in his descriptions of the Irish
question and the context for war in southern Africa.
Crosby deftly underscores the irony of Chamberlain’s efforts to destroy Gladstone’s plans for Ireland as both men wanted Home
Rule, just different interpretations of what form it would take. Similarly, the
possibility of Chamberlain’s involvement in the timing of the O’Shea divorce
case and the downfall of Charles Stewart Parnell is given due attention
[83-85]. Crosby carefully analyses William O’Shea’s motives for making his
wife’s adultery with Parnell public just at the moment when it would hurt the
Irish leader the most, but the analysis abruptly stops with the historiography
of Chamberlain’s involvement in the case. Crosby, himself, does not venture an
opinion regarding Chamberlain’s participation in the ruin of a key political
rival, but instead sidesteps the issue with the remark that, whatever else,
Parnell’s disappearance from parliament enhanced Chamberlain’s own pursuit of
power.
Mentions of Joseph Chamberlain in
today’s classrooms most often come through his role as Colonial Secretary at
the time of the Second South African War (1899-1902), marshalling the forces of
the British Empire against the Boers. Crosby stresses that Chamberlain “neither
initiated nor provoked war” [147], preferring instead to see military force as
an instrument of intimidation—rather like his own bullying tactics in
parliament. The belief that war in the Transvaal could enhance the powers of
imperial federation fed into Chamberlain’s vision of the empire as “one family”,
strengthening British civilisation’s position around the world. The fact that
this opinion predated the onset of guerrilla warfare in South Africa and Kitchener’s concentration camps did little to
shake Chamberlain’s belief in the power of empire. One of the most memorable
sentences in the entire work comes in the description of Chamberlain’s visit to
South Africa
in November 1902, after victory had been secured. Crosby suggests that it was
“almost a royal procession: the colonial monarch viewing his possessions”
[154].
The key weakness with the monograph is
that this type of pithy analysis is often all one receives from Crosby’s rendition of Chamberlain’s life. When setting
out the primary characteristics that informed Chamberlain’s demeanour, Crosby highlights the quest for power, his aggressive
personality, and also the importance of Chamberlain’s interpretations of
Victorian “manliness” [5]. Sadly, this reference is the only time that Crosby engages with what could have been a most
revelatory analysis of Chamberlain’s private and public lives. He very
correctly cites Davidoff, Hall, and Tosh to build the foundations for a gendered
analysis, but then does not progress with this avenue of inquiry, ignoring the
numerous times when a deeper investigation of Chamberlain’s understanding of
masculinities and manliness could have added fresh insight to a well-known
narrative. Most notably, this gendered analysis is missing from Crosby’s account of Chamberlain’s relationships
with his children and third wife, Mary, and from the section on the South
African War, when a study of imperial masculinities from the perspective of the
Colonial Secretary would have been most intriguing.
Joseph Chamberlain: A Most Radical Imperialist is a mixture of high politics, personal
ambition, and the pitfalls of power that engrossed one of Britain’s more belligerent public figures. As an
introduction to Chamberlain’s importance at the turn of the century, and as a
political narrative, it succeeds very well. That said, a ground-breaking
cultural and gendered exploration of Chamberlain’s place in British history
remains, frustratingly, unwritten.
.
