Friday
(0)One of the best things about the British Channel 4 television slot is its history programmes. I recall watching a number of programmes about the Napoleonic wars, and they ended with a remarkably Euro-sceptic take on the different visions of social order as evinced by British Prime Minister Pitt the Younger and politician Edmund Burke on the one hand, and those of Robespierre and his fellow totalitarian psychos, on the other. So maybe Channel 4 is not quite the haven of idiotarian marxoid nonsense I used to think after all.
Further proof of that view came last night in the end of the series Empire, a series on the British Empire by historian Niall Ferguson, who also has a good book out.
Anyway, last night's programme ended with a comment much to the effect that for all its faults, the British Empire spread the English language (good thing), the rule of law (same), capitalism (yep, good thing again), and team sports (ditto). And although it eventually broke up, our influence is still large, albeit indirectly, via the US, although the US dare not call its reach of influence an empire.
In other words, Ferguson has gotten the Anglosphere bug. This meme is spreading fast. Where will it go next, I wonder?
Not to mention medicine, literacy and the best legal system ever devised.
Posted by S. Weasel at February 14, 2003 11:04 PM
The Weapons of War series is pretty good as well. The B52, the SR71. (CH5 has done a few good ones as well, on the birth of the tank, the aircraft carrier)
Althought it was a factoid I have known for some years, it is still amazing to me the B52 is slated to be operational at least until 2040. To put it in perspective, it would be as if a Union Ironclad of the late Civil War was still in use for the opening days of the Korean War... I hope they keep one of them going another 15 years longer, just to be able to have a B52 Operational Centenary.
Posted by Dale Amon at February 15, 2003 01:23 AM
I recall watching a number of programmes about the Napoleonic wars...
You'll never escape history until you finally decide to drop that "e" from "program."
Of course, I could be mistaken.
Posted by Wayne Lutz at February 15, 2003 03:14 AM
I couldn't agree more about the effect Britain has had on the world. While it's fashionable to disparage the British Empire, the inescapable conclusion one must make is that it was, on balance, a huge boon to the world. As an American, I'm grateful for it.
I'm also grateful, as a man of German heritage, that the Romans thought enough of Germania to conquer my ancestors and give us their technology, their culture and their law. Without these two influences, the world would be a far, far poorer and more brutish place today.
Posted by Jeffersonian at February 15, 2003 04:47 AM
We aren't truly an empire until we start collecting taxes.
Instead, we pay our provinces just to let us be there, and politely leave whenever asked.
If we are an empire, it is certainly the oddest empire that's ever existed.
Posted by Dean Esmay at February 15, 2003 07:26 AM
Spreading the English language was a definite plus, besides all the other things mentioned.
Now if we could only figure out a some good way to teach English spelling.
Posted by Oengus Moonbones at February 15, 2003 03:41 PM
Roman law? You've got to be kidding me.
Almost all of the qualities that make the Anglosphere unique are tracable to the eradication of Roman culture in the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxons. English Common Law evolved out of customary Anglo-Saxon tribal law. Things (pun intended) like legislative assemblies, trial by jury, etc. were common among the ancient Germanic cultures, and had no Roman counterparts. Rome in the later years was simply a despotism.
The Anglosphere has more or less been defined by repudiating Roman influence, twice.
Posted by Anonymous at February 15, 2003 05:13 PM
Indeed, the meme is spreading. I now see the term "Anglosphere" in news articles, whereas it was just a academic term just a few years ago.
PS - Don't forget the that British Empire did a lot to end the Atlantic slave trade.
Posted by scott at February 15, 2003 08:08 PM
