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The Internal Colonial Concept

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Robert J. Hind
Robert J. Hind
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Extract

The use of internal colonial theories to examine racial developments within the United States of America had become almost fashionable by the late 1960s. A decade later, a study of the political economy of Wales described the internal colonial approach which it criticized as a “new variant of a time-worn model.’ Amongst historians, however, the internal colonial concept does not appear to be as familiar as it is to other social scientists. This article is addressed to historians who do not subscribe unreservedly to Alfred Cobban's belief that sociologists are their natural enemies, and amongst whom some might still be considering the implications of Fernand Braudel's contention that a “general history always requires an overall model, good or bad, against which events can be interpreted. ‘No theory, no history.’” The purpose here is to indicate some uses and characteristics of theories that the internal colonial concept has promoted, to comment briefly about some of the methodological issues which these theories present, and to suggest some benefits that the concept might have for certain types of social and historical enquiry.

Type
Facets of Colonialism
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 543 - 568
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1984

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References

I wish to acknowledge the bibliographical assistance of Fiona McCay of The University of Sydney Library, and of Hilary Weatherbum.

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