帝国豪门
出版日期:2016-4
ISBN:9787100121531
作者:[英] 艾玛·罗斯柴尔德
页数:388页
内容概要
艾玛•罗斯柴尔德女士（Emma Rothschild）
现任哈佛大学杰里米和简•诺尔斯历史学讲座教授以及历史与经济学联合中心主任，剑桥大学荣誉历史学教授以及莫德林学院研究员。15岁的时候升入牛津大学萨莫维尔学院，成为该学院有史以来最年轻的女学生。她本人来自英国的金融世家。著作有《经济情感：亚当•斯密、孔多赛和启蒙运动》等。
书籍目录
目 录
导论 观念和情感......1
第一章 启程......11
四姊妹与七兄弟......15
困境......21
来自印度的噩耗......25
西方帝国的先锋......29
一些作为礼物的小象......36
第二章 回家......45
家族的财政状况......47
东、西印度的政治......53
启蒙的科学与艺术......58
废墟中的印度......61
贝尔，别名贝琳达......66
约瑟夫•奈特......68
第三章 结局与死亡......73
帝国的碎片......76
詹姆斯•约翰斯通一家......80
印度黄丝绸......83
财政大臣......86
远方的命运......88
第四章 经济生活......93
潜在的帝国......97
什么是政府？......102
什么是法律，什么不是法律......105
个体的社会......109
一个温和的帝国......111
经济理论......113
第五章 帝国的经历......117
不列颠帝国的奴隶制......119
“信息时代”......130
家族历史......140
事物之间的联系......148
私人生活......152
第六章 什么是启蒙......157
哲学家的派别......160
启蒙的社会环境：书与书商......166
法律信息......169
文员与牧师......174
政治思想的社会环境......179
社会环境......185
约翰斯通家族的启蒙......188
启蒙与压迫共存......192
第七章 观念的历史......197
意识之眼......199
人类意识的历史......201
家族秘密......203
场景和规模的不连续......208
信息的不完整性......210
第八章 其他人......215
约翰斯通家族与意识......217
贝尔，别名贝琳达......222
其他人......228
注释......231
作者简介
《帝国豪门：18世纪史》是关于非常著名的约翰斯通家族发展史的历史类著作。家族中的四个姐妹和七个兄弟，他们是废奴主义者、投机商人、奴隶主、官员，有时还是政治家。他们见证了18世纪大英帝国的动荡、焦虑和变迁。四姐妹之一加入了叛军，曾被关押在爱丁堡，后乔装逃脱。她的一个弟弟是亚当•斯密和大卫•休谟的好友。另一个兄弟精通波斯语和孟加拉语，并且与一位著名的诗人成婚。他还是一个名叫“贝尔或贝琳达”的奴隶的主人，这名奴隶来自加尔各答，后又抵达弗吉尼亚，是不列颠群岛上最后一个被法庭判定为奴隶的人。约翰斯通家族成员在格林纳达、印度、牙买加和佛罗里达的轨迹，展现了当时欧洲、美洲和亚洲之间的联系。他们的家族历史，让今天的人们洞察到那个在公共与个人、家乡与海外、奴役与劳役等概念之间摇摆不定的时代。
编辑推荐
•本书荣获2011年度苏格兰圣安德鲁十字学会历史书类文学奖
•本书荣获2011年美国《纽约客》杂志“最受书评人欢迎奖”
媒体推荐
这本书是一项卓越的档案史料发现的研究成果，这也是每一个历史学者梦想要做的。
——《纽约书评》
罗斯柴尔德女士的《帝国豪门：18世界史》通过一个非常独特的视角，给我们提供了一次令人激动不已的帝国时期苏格兰社会的发展历程。
——《华尔街时报》
11位生活足迹横跨英国、非洲和美洲的苏格兰约翰斯通家族成员的精彩故事，组成了这本极富独创性和卓越性的书。
——《书评人周刊》
发布书评
精彩书评 (总计2条)
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文/严杰夫在艾瑞克•霍布斯鲍姆的眼中，18世纪末到19世纪中叶的那段历史显然是激荡人心的。在他的书中，英国工业革命和法国大革命被看成是撬动世界历史的“双生子”。这就是他那著名的“双元革命”，也因此他将那个年代称为“革命的年代”。霍布斯鲍姆的宏大叙事固然有它惊心动魄的地方，但那个时代在微观层面上是否也同样动人？霍布斯鲍姆对此并未给出答案。倒是艾玛•罗斯柴尔德在《帝国豪门：18世纪史》（直译应为《帝国的内在生活：18世纪史》，以下简称《帝国豪门》）中，为我们展现出了那个年代的“另一面”。用艾玛自己的话说，他所观察的历史是一种“内在史”。在这一面向里，作者关注的是历史人物内在的思想和情感，及其与外在世界的联系。所以，艾玛笔下的历史更像是简•奥斯丁的小说，借着琐碎的日常拼贴出时代中蕴藏的诡谲，这就与霍布斯鲍姆笔下“大写的历史”有了天壤之别。当然，在谈论艾玛•罗斯柴尔德的叙事特色时，我们无法忽略作为女性学者的她所特有的细腻视角和敏锐洞察力。正如在谈论这本书的缘起时，她透露，她是在研究亚当•斯密的过程中，偶尔发现了一部工业革命时代的书信集。这部书信集就像是突然撩开了一个家族隐藏数百年的秘密，并为她呈现出一段从未为人所知的隐秘历史。《帝国豪门》的“主角”是生活于18世纪末到19世初的一个苏格兰商人家庭——约翰斯通家族。更严谨地说，是约翰斯通家族的11个兄弟姐妹。约翰斯通家族算是新兴的商人阶级，但并不像本书的题目所描述的那样，很难称得上是个名门望族。在约翰斯通姐妹的父母一代，这个家族不过是一个没落的贵族，而即使是在鼎盛时期，约翰斯通家族也很难称得上是真正的“豪门”。不过，与那个年代的大部分商人一样，约翰斯通姊妹热切关注着生活中的“苦痛与焦虑”。就好像那个时代的英国，也正走在痛苦的转型路上，正在慢慢学着成长成一个真正的帝国。这些商人则在通过在实践中的思考，来摸索如何捍卫自己的利益不受国家和官僚的侵犯，又如何辨清自己的商业行为中哪些是符合道德和法律，哪些又是愚昧和野蛮的。而在这些问题之前，艾玛最先关注的还是约翰斯通家族是如何成功的。或者说，这个家族的财富究竟是来自何方。正是带着这个问题，艾玛从约翰斯通家族的信件里，发现一个前所未见的“信息时代”。约翰斯通家族这样的成功商人，正是凭借着信息和知识，最终为家族赚取了大量的财富。所以，艾玛才会指出，“约翰斯通家族的成功综合着机遇、决心，以及有效利用各种信息的结果……他们借助于信息和财富创造财富。”约翰斯通家族的原始资本有两个来源：第一，是约翰•约翰斯通在印度东印度公司任职时寄回的钱，这部分包括印度王子和银行家送给他的礼物，以及他在印度兼职做生意时赚到的利润；第二，是威廉•约翰斯通的妻子所继承到的遗产。艾玛考证指出，这两个资金来源让约翰和威廉在18世纪60年代就已是腰缠万贯的富豪了。但重要的是，约翰斯通家族成功地将这两个兄弟的财产演变为全家族的财产，最先富裕的两个兄弟带领全家族的兄弟姐妹走向了“共同富裕”。在这个过程里，利用信息、抓住投资机遇是最关键的窍门。譬如亚历山大•约翰斯通就是凭借着威廉提供的资助，根据信息判断后在格林纳达购买了种植园，并成为兄弟中第三个致富的人。这就是约翰斯通家族的“生意经”。在那个“信息时代”里，约翰斯通家族是最早懂得和认识到信息中潜藏着巨大机会的那批人。正如亚当•斯密所指出，这些商人对商贸活动的理解建立在对信息之重要性的认知之上。所以，我们看到，乔治•约翰斯通是一个“见多识广”的人，而威廉•约翰斯通则是精通票据和债券业务的专家，约翰•约翰斯通同样精通多种外语，贝蒂•约翰斯通则是这11个兄弟姐妹甚至于父母的信息交换中心。对于今天的读者来说，约翰斯通家族的“生意经”或许还有借鉴意义，因为我们今天依旧将信息的获取，看成是投资和经商活动取得成功的关键要素之一。也因此，在这一层面上，信件等文献资料中还原出的约翰斯通家族，就像是一块“活化石”，为我们展现出那个时代商人的精明之处。就像后世的历史学家所评价道，“对于信息的渴求，在这些人身上形成了一种独特的性格特征”。不过，我们依旧要看到约翰斯通家族在财富积累的过程中，所具有的鲜明的时代特征。毕竟，在约翰斯通家族的财产来源中，家族遗产、海外殖民的收益、奴隶经济、利用职务关系而获得的利润占到了很大一部分。从这个角度来看，如约翰斯通家族这样的商人仍然在从古代商人向现代商人的转型过程中。这就是约翰斯通家族成员所体现出的矛盾性和模糊性。这种模糊和矛盾的现象，不仅体现在财富积累过程中，还在家族的观念和日常生活里。而他们对奴隶制的看法就是最好的例子可以说，约翰斯通家族的全部历史都和奴隶制紧密相连。贝尔或贝琳达、约瑟夫•奈特，这两个奴隶都曾是影响了世界历史进程的事件的主角，其中贝尔或贝琳达是不列颠群岛上最后一个被判为奴隶的人，约瑟夫•奈特的起诉则结束了不列颠法律对奴隶制的认可。但有意思的是，约翰斯通家族内部对奴隶制的看法和立场十分复杂：1770年，亚历山大反对施加于奴隶酷刑；1775年，乔治则赞美奴隶主的仁慈；1788年，约翰和他的儿子都加入到了废除奴隶贸易协会，有意思的是他委托管理的北美种植园里就有奴隶；1792年，詹姆斯则主张立即要废除奴隶贸易。我们或许会惊讶，这个家族居然会在奴隶制这个问题上，拥有如此多元的立场和观念。除此以外，在很多制度和社会问题上，约翰斯通家族都表现出模糊的观念和立场。也正因此，我们才会发现“在约翰斯通家族的经历中，经济、政治和军事领域之间的界线是不确定的，法律也面临着一样的境遇”这样的现象。最后，我们还要强调，约翰斯通家族的历史意义还在于，一大串著名的苏格兰启蒙学者与这11个兄弟姐妹有着密切联系：亚当•斯密、大卫•休谟、亚当•弗格森……在许多人类历史的教科书中，这些星光熠熠的名字一直都是作为主角而存在，但在艾玛的这本作品里，他们却成为了约翰斯通家族的陪衬。在这里，他们凸显出一种特别的关系：约翰斯通家族的商业活动和经济实践成为启蒙学者思考的源泉，而启蒙学者的哲学观点也同样在影响着约翰斯通家族对社会、制度、贸易、法律等多个方面的看法和评价。所以，艾玛才会强调，约翰斯通家族本身就是一个小型的启蒙社会。《帝国豪门》可以被我们看成是一部文学作品，就好像《唐顿庄园》那样，作者为我们呈现了站在历史关口的约翰斯通家族的命运；《帝国豪门》也可以被看成是一部传记，它是对约翰斯通家族及其庞大社交圈的个案研究；但最重要的是，《帝国豪门》是一部宏观反映历史人物内心世界的微观史。于是，与霍布斯鲍姆呈现的波澜壮阔的“革命年代”不同，艾玛却带领我们去解读历史旋转门前的人们内心世界生出的迷惑和惶恐。借助于此，艾玛想要告诉我们，启蒙不是简单的振臂高呼，或菩提树下突然来临的“醍醐灌顶”，而是人们在亦步亦趋地摸索、反思、争吵、挣和犹豫的过程中，所凝成的点滴思想结晶。这才是启蒙的可贵之处。在本质上，《帝国豪门》是艾玛在亚当•斯密的研究过程中衍生制造的 “副产品”。因此，艾玛实际上是戴着斯密的“眼镜”来观察约翰斯通家族的故事。正如作者自己所说，“我们所说的内在的历史……是斯密式的；而就其道德观察或道德想象的活动而言，也是斯密式的”。正是靠着这种斯密式的叙事视角，我们得以跟随作者走进到“革命年代”的日常生活中。于是，我们就不再只是历史的旁观者，而是成为了那个“革命年代”的一份子。--------------------------------------------------------------如果您喜欢我的文章，请帮忙在“朋友圈”转发，并推荐“严杰夫的约柜”。：） -
"The eleven Johnstone siblings of Westerhall, in Scotland, were 'a large and disorderly family,' whose lives, playing out on three continents between 1723 and 1813, illuminate what Rothschild calls an 'empire of intimate exchanges.' The subject is well chosen and provocatively explored."--New Yorker "The book is the outcome of a remarkable archival discovery, of the kind of which every historian dreams... The nature of her ambition is revealed by her title, The Inner Life of Empires. She wants to show us how the opening of the world to a family like the Johnstones affected their thoughts, sentiments, and behavior, and is anxious to recapture the day-to-day responses of people who had no idea, any more than we ourselves have, of how the story in which they found themselves caught up would end. Would the new republic of the United States survive? Nobody knew for certain. The range of sources she has consulted, the extraordinary wealth of detail she has unearthed about even the most obscure individuals, and the quite unexpected connections between them that she has uncovered fully support her claim. It is wonderfully appropriate that a book that gives us so many new and surprising insights into the new 'information society' of the eighteenth century should itself depend so heavily on new information technology, drawing, as Rothschild puts it, on 'a world of searchable databases and digitized archive catalogues.' In doing so, it presents what I suspect is a foretaste of a kind of history that will become increasingly common in the years to come, even if, as I fear, not all its practitioners will bring to it the historical imagination and sensitivity of Emma Rothschild."--New York Review of Books"Ms. Rothschild's The Inner Life of Empires offers us a fascinating tour of Scottish society during the age of empire, and it does so from a unique perspective. Ms. Rothschild has written a "micro-history," a mode of scholarship that attempts to elucidate large historical themes by closely narrating the small history of a particular individual. Her micro-history is not about an individual but a family. The book is unusually well-researched and wide-ranging... Ms. Rothschild has corralled this voluminous and scattered archival record with diligence and skill. She presents the Johnstones' family history as a portrait of their age. Books of this kind work by accumulating telling detail and so defy summary. Still, several themes emerge. Ms. Rothschild beautifully reveals, for instance, how fundamentally the imperial and military exploits of states can remake the imaginative and aspirational worlds of their subjects. The Johnstones could plan a career in the Caribbean, or gossip about the politics of the Mughal court in Delhi, in a manner that would have staggered their near forebears. The Inner Life of Empires reminds us that the experience of globalism long predates the age of the Internet... More admirable still is Ms. Rothschild's meticulous and elegant account of the family. She offers us a captivating glimpse of what it must have been like to live in, profit from and command the British Empire during its heyday."--Jeffrey Collins, Wall Street Journal"This original and remarkable book ... is the story of the Johnstones, 11 Scottish siblings whose lives spanned the entire 18th-century British Empire--from Britain to Africa and the Americas. By extraordinary perseverance, Rothschild (a Harvard historian) has excavated the tiniest tidbits about them from a vast array of repositories and collections, and used these shards of evidence to broaden and deepen our understanding of the Enlightenment, commerce, empires, revolutions, nation states, sentiments, family relations, and slavery. Her tale often holds the mysteries of a fictional account, especially about a key slave whose life after shipment to the American colonies is lost in the mists of time... While this is a scholarly work and the very model of the contemporary historian's craft, it's also deeply illuminating, humane, at times moving, and altogether captivating."--Publishers Weekly "[An] elegantly crafted narrative... The Inner Life of Empires ... is a tour-de-force of archival sleuthing. It is also a triumph of historical ventriloquism. Speaking through the Johnstones, Rothschild delivers a wise, original reflection on the shifting boundaries between home and abroad, private and public, at the dawn of the modern age."--Maya Jasanoff, New Republic "Emma Rothschild is an historian of the mind, of characteristic ways of thinking and feeling. She aims to blindfold hindsight and to recover not just external events but the way people perceived them at the time. The difficulty is evidence. Most people leave no trace. Even the eminent, she says, show little sign of the inner consequences of outward affairs. As if in answer, her absorbing new book, "The Inner Life of Empires", overflows with evidence--so finely detailed and from such scattered sources as to be scarcely imaginable before the development of digitized, searchable catalogues and archives."--The Economist "This is a meticulous study, based on an immense amount of research, including a large cache of family correspondence, court records and much more... There is much to admire about this book. It skillfully links the "microhistory" of the Johnson siblings with the "macrohistory" of Britain and its empire, giving us an intimate glimpse into the way one family pursued the material opportunities and confronted the moral challenges that arose with Britain's late-18th-century advance around the globe."--Dane Kennedy, Washington Independent Review of Books "Here Emma Rothschild offers a truly transnational family history set in an age of turbulence, war and imperial growth; a moment in time where dramas were many. Rothschild's story of Empire, however, comes with a new spin, offering as it does a micro-historical account of one family's interconnections with the empires, politics and ideologies of the age. Drawing on many intensively mined sources from an array of archives, including a rich collection of family letters, she furnishes a richly detailed, highly readable account of the Johnstones, four sisters and seven brothers born into middling circumstances in Dumfries in the 1720s and 1730s... The strength of this book lies in its focus on the family as a collective, for it is here that we see how Empire and individuals came together."--Donald MacRaild, Times Higher Education "This is ... a brave and able book."--Gillian Tindall, Literary Review (UK)"Emma Rothschild's magnificently researched and lucidly written book reveals the many connections and layers of empire without in any way undermining the less edifying aspects of empire."--Rudrangshu Mukherjee, The Telegraph (Calcutta, India) "[A] wealth of insight into early capitalism and ... the moral foundations of the global economy."--Diane C., Enlightened Economist"Rothschild presents a fascinating combination of micro- and macro-history that sheds light on 18th century empires throughout the world. She does so by relying upon primary source documents of one family, the Johnstones, a relatively nonprosperous family of the Scottish country gentry... [T]he approach provides a window on both personal and worldwide history that would be impossible otherwise."--Choice "There is much wisdom and compassion in this gracefully written book."--Keith M. Baker, Law and History Review"Rothschild is an accomplished scholar and a fluent writer. And her subject--teasing a broad study from a history of a single family--is both cleverly conceived and persuasively-argued. It is a tribute to indefatigable research, and it reflects the author's intellectual excitement about what she has unearthed."--James Walvin, Figurehead Historian "[T]his work is an apt corrective to overly simplistic views of what eighteenth-century imperial Britons believed and felt."--Robert A. McLain, Historian "The micro-history of the Johnstones ... is a fascinating and informative account... [S]ome of the best pages of this book illuminate the connections between principles, personal interests, and ideas in the political thought and in the politics of members of this family. Rothschild's sensitivity to these conflicts and tensions is admirable."--K. Steven Vincent, European Legacy"The Inner Life of Empires is an excellent micro-history of one family's globe-spanning existence... Rothschild illuminates a tumultuous period that created the modern economy, the British Empire, and the philosophical Enlightenment and will be an indispensible tool for contextualizing discussions of present-day globalization."--World Book Industry"Rothschild wonderfully stirs politics, economics, family relationships, slavery, government, colonial life, and education into the same pot. Her work makes a convincing argument against separating concerns of public and private, economy and romance, politics and family. Her material may seem too comprehensive for one volume, but The Inner Life of Empires is very readable, almost novelistic in its integrated structure and fluid narrative."--Anna Lawrence, Journal of Modern History"[A] Gem of a book... Her book is a brilliant achievement in what the author identifies as the new microhistory and a sophisticated statement on the possibilities of this genre."--Mark Gamsa, Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Geschichte / Revue Suisse d'Histoire
精彩短评 (总计3条)
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内容冗杂，人名地名一个接一个，难免让读者倍感混乱。如果附赠一个年表和人物关系图，读起来会轻松得多。当然，这一切都是我作为一个业余读者说的。 -
•本书荣获2011年度苏格兰圣安德鲁十字学会历史书类文学奖
•本书荣获2011年美国《纽约客》杂志“最受书评人欢迎奖”
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七分 扣一分扣在注释都在最后而不是每页下面看的时候十分难受。让人能知道那时候是个还比较混乱无秩序没有一定之规，界限模糊的年代，还很讲道德，以及可能是贵族制和财产继承的原因，大家在钱上既能慷慨资助又能寸步不让，很多机会然而又不是分析出的，一不小心就能搞死自己。有趣。不过现在已经是个有秩序的年代了。