Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0007
B. Bell
The epilogue rounds off the argument by returning to Crusoe as a paradigm of the act of reading in the British empire. In the hands of different readers not even Robinson Crusoe was as straightforward as it seemed. Despite the fact that the novel has often been read as a manual for empire, it is far more complex than some commentaries would have us believe. Similar ambivalences apply to the lives and minds of many overseas British in the long nineteenth century. While the early twentieth century is commonly thought to have embodied a decline in imperial values, the reading habits of colonial subjects throughout the period would seem to indicate that imperial assurances were less robust than official sources would seem to suggest. The five reading constituencies that are described in the foregoing chapters, all of them in different ways operating within the web of empire, were ones in which individuals often found imperial confidence in its own mission wanting, something that was time and again demonstrated through in their acts of reading.
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Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0004
B. Bell
One relatively distinct group in the British empire were the millions of Scots who extended their cultural networks in the various new worlds. From New Zealand to Australia and Canada, Scottish settlers used their books and reading as a means of replicating and promoting their own cultural values far from home. This chapter examines a number of pioneer communities settled by Scots, particularly members of the Free Church, established after the Disruption of 1848. Under the fiercely sectarian leadership of a number of prominent church ministers in Dunedin, Waipu, and elsewhere, institutional libraries were established that reflected the cultural and religious affiliations of home. Later in the nineteenth century, even in these enclaves of Scottishness these same communities became increasingly integrated into an overseas colonial identity. A key figure in this regard was the pastoralist, George Russell of Victoria. An important colonial representation of Scottishness in this stage of transition was articulated by Catherine Helen Spence in her novel Handfasted. By the twentieth century, almost in direct proportion to their distance from their national origins, colonial Scots remained faithful to a number of cultural practices, not least of which was the keen promotion of literary works by their countrymen and women.
{"title":"A Kingdom of the Mind","authors":"B. Bell","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"One relatively distinct group in the British empire were the millions of Scots who extended their cultural networks in the various new worlds. From New Zealand to Australia and Canada, Scottish settlers used their books and reading as a means of replicating and promoting their own cultural values far from home. This chapter examines a number of pioneer communities settled by Scots, particularly members of the Free Church, established after the Disruption of 1848. Under the fiercely sectarian leadership of a number of prominent church ministers in Dunedin, Waipu, and elsewhere, institutional libraries were established that reflected the cultural and religious affiliations of home. Later in the nineteenth century, even in these enclaves of Scottishness these same communities became increasingly integrated into an overseas colonial identity. A key figure in this regard was the pastoralist, George Russell of Victoria. An important colonial representation of Scottishness in this stage of transition was articulated by Catherine Helen Spence in her novel Handfasted. By the twentieth century, almost in direct proportion to their distance from their national origins, colonial Scots remained faithful to a number of cultural practices, not least of which was the keen promotion of literary works by their countrymen and women.","PeriodicalId":181088,"journal":{"name":"Crusoe's Books","volume":"729 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122931499","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0005
B. Bell
The British National Antarctic Expedition left England in 1901 to spend the following three years in Antarctica. Under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott the officers and crew on board Discovery were provided with an extensive library for research and recreation during their long sojourn in the south. From the men’s diaries, official reports, and correspondence, it has been possible to account for the diversity and intensity of reading experiences throughout this period. Contrary to the confident official reports that came out about the expedition, the men’s relationships with print suggest a far more complex and contending situation.
{"title":"Bound for Antarctica","authors":"B. Bell","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The British National Antarctic Expedition left England in 1901 to spend the following three years in Antarctica. Under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott the officers and crew on board Discovery were provided with an extensive library for research and recreation during their long sojourn in the south. From the men’s diaries, official reports, and correspondence, it has been possible to account for the diversity and intensity of reading experiences throughout this period. Contrary to the confident official reports that came out about the expedition, the men’s relationships with print suggest a far more complex and contending situation.","PeriodicalId":181088,"journal":{"name":"Crusoe's Books","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115392786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0003
B. Bell
This chapter deals with the experiences and perceptions of reading within the nineteenth-century criminal system, with particular emphasis on Australian-bound transportees. It shows how attempts on the part of the authorities often fell short of their expectations, as prisoners themselves asserted their insubordination through acts of reading and writing. In particularly harsh regimes such a Norfolk Island, literacy and reading became sources of conflict among the authorities. Many took a prohibitive view of reading provision while others, like Thomas Maconachie, took a liberal attitude towards the encouragement of literacy. From transportation earlier in the period, a certain number of transportation prisoners were highly educated and often skilled in other ways. The final wave of transportation in the 1860s coincided with increased Fenian unrest in Ireland. Political prisoners in particular included a high proportion of well qualified individuals, some of them popular celebrities. Their highly literate use of reading and writing earned them the name of ‘Specials’.
{"title":"The Indiscipline of Reading","authors":"B. Bell","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter deals with the experiences and perceptions of reading within the nineteenth-century criminal system, with particular emphasis on Australian-bound transportees. It shows how attempts on the part of the authorities often fell short of their expectations, as prisoners themselves asserted their insubordination through acts of reading and writing. In particularly harsh regimes such a Norfolk Island, literacy and reading became sources of conflict among the authorities. Many took a prohibitive view of reading provision while others, like Thomas Maconachie, took a liberal attitude towards the encouragement of literacy. From transportation earlier in the period, a certain number of transportation prisoners were highly educated and often skilled in other ways. The final wave of transportation in the 1860s coincided with increased Fenian unrest in Ireland. Political prisoners in particular included a high proportion of well qualified individuals, some of them popular celebrities. Their highly literate use of reading and writing earned them the name of ‘Specials’.","PeriodicalId":181088,"journal":{"name":"Crusoe's Books","volume":"193 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114660450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0006
B. Bell
This final chapter examines the reading habits of troops on the Western Front during the First World War. Literary levels among soldiers were a major preoccupation among many commentators in the period. At the beginning of the war a scarcity of reading matter was often remarked on at the front. Eventually, many means, official and unofficial, were used to acquire books by those on active service: borrowing, sharing, theft were common practices in reading culture. Among the official means for print distribution, several effective schemes were promoted. The Camps Library Scheme of the YMCA enabled book provision all along the Western Front. While the British government invested in propagandizing mentalities among the ranks, soldiers themselves used books, newspapers, and trench journals for their own ends. The varieties of literacy among troops in this period were as diverse as the reading materials themselves.
{"title":"The War for Civilization","authors":"B. Bell","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This final chapter examines the reading habits of troops on the Western Front during the First World War. Literary levels among soldiers were a major preoccupation among many commentators in the period. At the beginning of the war a scarcity of reading matter was often remarked on at the front. Eventually, many means, official and unofficial, were used to acquire books by those on active service: borrowing, sharing, theft were common practices in reading culture. Among the official means for print distribution, several effective schemes were promoted. The Camps Library Scheme of the YMCA enabled book provision all along the Western Front. While the British government invested in propagandizing mentalities among the ranks, soldiers themselves used books, newspapers, and trench journals for their own ends. The varieties of literacy among troops in this period were as diverse as the reading materials themselves.","PeriodicalId":181088,"journal":{"name":"Crusoe's Books","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132820794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-21DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0002
B. Bell
Drawing on personal diaries, correspondence, and printed sources, this chapter offers a history of reading on seaborne journeys to emigrant destinations in the nineteenth century. It explores the distinction between official sources, such as church and emigrant recruitment agencies, and the everyday experiences of emigrants themselves, as well as the cultural and educational differences that helped define them. Examining the different conditions between classes on board emigrant ships, it offers several personal accounts of the difficulties faced by reading at sea. The publication of shipboard newspapers, in both manuscript and print, provided a means of entertainment but also assisted social order on board many voyages. The deprivations of many, contrasted with the social advantages of the few, indicate that distinctions on land could be even more marked on the high seas. Nevertheless, the use of print and manuscript by representatives of almost all classes in the nineteenth century allowed for the imagination of cultural connection and the exercise of cultural memory far from home.
{"title":"Our Floating Commonwealth","authors":"B. Bell","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192894694.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Drawing on personal diaries, correspondence, and printed sources, this chapter offers a history of reading on seaborne journeys to emigrant destinations in the nineteenth century. It explores the distinction between official sources, such as church and emigrant recruitment agencies, and the everyday experiences of emigrants themselves, as well as the cultural and educational differences that helped define them. Examining the different conditions between classes on board emigrant ships, it offers several personal accounts of the difficulties faced by reading at sea. The publication of shipboard newspapers, in both manuscript and print, provided a means of entertainment but also assisted social order on board many voyages. The deprivations of many, contrasted with the social advantages of the few, indicate that distinctions on land could be even more marked on the high seas. Nevertheless, the use of print and manuscript by representatives of almost all classes in the nineteenth century allowed for the imagination of cultural connection and the exercise of cultural memory far from home.","PeriodicalId":181088,"journal":{"name":"Crusoe's Books","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129113601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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