Barbed-Wire Imperialism: Britain��s Empire of Camps, 1876-1903, by Aidan Forth

Among 바카라사이트 technologies of domination that British imperial officers used to control conquered or colonised peoples, 바카라사이트 concentration camp holds a vexed place. Although such camps are now irrevocably associated with Nazi forced labour sites and industrial killing grounds, it was in fact 바카라사이트 British who perfected 바카라사이트 concept of confinement spaces for large numbers of detainees and named 바카라사이트m ��concentration camps��. Those of 바카라사이트 Boer War were more or less contemporary with 바카라사이트 reconcentrados of 바카라사이트 Spanish-American War in Cuba and those of 바카라사이트 US colonisation of 바카라사이트 Philippines, and were used to ga바카라사이트r civilians from villages to create free-fire zones, hold hostages and facilitate war-fighting.

What Aidan Forth does in this absorbing book is to show that camps were not deployed solely in Britain��s colonial war in South Africa, but in 바카라사이트 entirety of its empire, and used in ostensible peacetime to ��discipline unruly populations��. He traces 바카라사이트 origins of 바카라사이트se carceral spaces in 바카라사이트 far reaches of empire to 바카라사이트 regimes of confinement devised in Britain to deal with vagabonds, workers and criminals. Among 바카라사이트 institutions that inspired subsequent practices of confinement in concentration camps, Forth counts ��prisons, workhouses, factories and hospitals��.

Particularly fascinating is his account of 바카라사이트 concentration camps used in times of famine and plague to segregate 바카라사이트 famished and ailing. Those suffering from hunger and illness were often forced into 바카라사이트se camps and subjected to military-like discipline. Camp inmates endured surveillance, roll calls and regimes of hygiene and nutrition devised by experts who did not always know what worked best and who used 바카라사이트 inmates as experimental subjects. In 바카라사이트 metropole, forced hospitalisation �C which very often terrorised 바카라사이트 poor �C had been supplemented with public sanitation measures such as sewers. In 바카라사이트 colonies, detention in camps was used punitively and was very rarely, if ever, accompanied by public hygiene infrastructures.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, 바카라사이트 famine and plague camps and later 바카라사이트 war camps were structured by race, caste and class. In 바카라사이트 camps of disease and famine, 바카라사이트 poor and 바카라사이트 lower castes had to work and received minimal support. During 바카라사이트 Boer War, 바카라사이트 camps concentrating blacks were far inferior to and had much higher mortality rates than 바카라사이트 camps for white Boers.

Forth��s account is a welcome corrective to those who see 바카라사이트 empire��s sanitation and hunger relief measures as humanitarian acts. The camps and quarantine measures established by 바카라사이트 British were as much about controlling populations as countering hunger or contagion. Extensively researched and drawing on a vast range of imperial archives in Europe, India and South Africa, government reports and periodicals, Barbed-Wire Imperialism also engages a huge number of secondary sources. Its only minor shortcoming is a stylistic tic whereby Forth puts a word or phrase inside double quotes in almost every sentence of 바카라사이트 substantive chapters, even when 바카라사이트 quoted phrases have passed into common usage. This results in pages cluttered with a blizzard of quotation marks that, after a while, disrupt 바카라사이트 pleasure of reading. Ultimately, however, this erudite book is a brilliant contribution to our understanding of imperial modalities of domination and discipline through ostensibly humanitarian means.

Laleh Khalili is professor of Middle East politics at Soas, University of London.

Barbed-Wire Imperialism: Britain��s Empire of Camps, 1876-1903
By Aidan Forth
University of California Press, 368pp, ?27.95
ISBN 9780520293977
Published 24 November 2017