Customer Reviews
Brilliant, Impressive and Urgently Topical. - By: J. Evans, 14 Feb 2004 
This is a truly masterful & enigmatic work that is immensely readable despite its well-earned reputation. Consequently this is a book that will & should be of interest to everyone, from the specialist to the casual reader who has never encountered theory before.
So why then Culture & Imperialism?
Western societies seem to have entered a phase of collective amnesia whereby colonialism, if it is remembered at alll, is envisioned as ending somewhere along the length of the Suez Canal.
Said's thoughtful analysis challlenges the modern myth of the end of Empire & of the slow decline of an age of economic & cultural imperialism which came to an end sometime after 1948 with the final dropping of the Union Jack in the final coloniallly occupied territory.
In many ways economic & cultural imperialism is as pervasive & violent today as it ever was, if not a little more so. Indeed, Said's brilliance in this book is to fundamentallly disrupt & deconstruct the modern Western amnesia. Far from being back then & over there Said helps us to trace the links, connections, & complicities between writers as diverse as Jane Austen, J. S. Mill & W. B. Yeats.
For anyone with an interest in postcolonialism Culture & Imperialism is an essential grounding. Not only does the text follow on from Said's brilliant & ground-breaking Ur text of postcolonial studies Orientalism, but it suggests the possibility & methodology of subjecting imperialism to a systemic analysis.
Said has always been controversial, & rightly so. Unlike the quite frankly shoddy & poorly argued vitriol of some of his detractors (and reviewers) Said's work is always superbly well argued & controlled. Whether you support Said's point of view or not you cannot but fail to be impressed by his depth of insight & by the humanism of his intelligence.
