The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire

Rating:
Summary: The implications of controlling knowledge
Review: A compact, but dense book about the implications of empire (as much the idea of empire as the actual entity) for the dissemination and transmission (and the manipulation and hoarding) of information. The author starts from the premise that to be the guardian of an empire is to wish for the ultimate archive: a wealth of information that allows you to know and control every aspect of your territory's life, whether the territory is real (as with the British Empire) or imagined (as in the several works of fiction, including Bram Stoker's "Dracula," James Hilton's "Lost Horizon," and Rudyard Kipling's "Kim," that the author analyzes). A highly recommended and absolutely enthralling book.

Rating:
Summary: Information Theory and The Victorian World View
Review: Drawing on an impressive, if at times daunting, amount of literary and critical material, Thomas Richards' The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire achieves a clarity and force not often reached in the murky and oft-maligned realm of Information Theory. Information Theory? Don't run and hide, it only sounds scary. Richards has done something new here: he has combined two fields usually considered boring and overly-cerebral --Information Theory and Literary Criticism-- and by their union has made them interesting and informative. The Imperial Archive explores what the British Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries was really all about by looking at how it's servants and institutions viewed information acquisition and dissemination. He does this by reviewing the great works of literature of the time which impact on this question. This is another great strength of the work: readers will find themselves with the bibliography of their dreams. From Kipling to Hilton (Lost Horizon), from Wells to Childers (The Riddle of The Sands)and from Pynchon to Heller, Richards' use and command of these and other great authors makes for very stimulating and elucidating reading. His exploration of non-fiction material is also an important element in what is a truly interdisciplinary work, studying, for instance, the relationship between geography and espionage (Hopkirk's The Great Game)and the scientific approach to ballistics as a metaphor for the human dilemma (again, Pynchon). I highly recommend this work, even for those of you not usually interested in this type of critical reference. It may be the only book of it's kind you ever read, but you will be happy you did so, if only for the years of thoughtful reading you will have ahead of you --as I said, the bibliography of your dreams.

Rating:
Summary: Information Theory and The Victorian World View
Review: Drawing on an impressive, if at times daunting, amount of literary and critical material, Thomas Richards' The Imperial Archive: Knowledge and the Fantasy of Empire achieves a clarity and force not often reached in the murky and oft-maligned realm of Information Theory. Information Theory? Don't run and hide, it only sounds scary. Richards has done something new here: he has combined two fields usually considered boring and overly-cerebral --Information Theory and Literary Criticism-- and by their union has made them interesting and informative. The Imperial Archive explores what the British Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries was really all about by looking at how it's servants and institutions viewed information acquisition and dissemination. He does this by reviewing the great works of literature of the time which impact on this question. This is another great strength of the work: readers will find themselves with the bibliography of their dreams. From Kipling to Hilton (Lost Horizon), from Wells to Childers (The Riddle of The Sands)and from Pynchon to Heller, Richards' use and command of these and other great authors makes for very stimulating and elucidating reading. His exploration of non-fiction material is also an important element in what is a truly interdisciplinary work, studying, for instance, the relationship between geography and espionage (Hopkirk's The Great Game)and the scientific approach to ballistics as a metaphor for the human dilemma (again, Pynchon). I highly recommend this work, even for those of you not usually interested in this type of critical reference. It may be the only book of it's kind you ever read, but you will be happy you did so, if only for the years of thoughtful reading you will have ahead of you --as I said, the bibliography of your dreams.

Rating:
Summary: Clumsy writing, and a worship of academia is evident as well
Review: This book comprises a combination of lit theory and political theory, neither of which he manages to add anything essential. While imperial powers (most particularly, the USA) wreck havoc upon the wealth, environment, and health of other nations, academics continue to produce lighter weight books of "cerebral" nattering, and pretend that such comfortable theory making (which any fool can do) somehow constitutes a fight against the selfishness of passive bourgeois Westerners (academics *do* come to mind...)