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The Science of Empire: Scientific Knowledge, Civilization, and Colonial Rule in India. By ZAHEER BABER. Albany: State University of New York, 1996. x, 298 pp. $71.50 (cloth); $23.95 (paper).
This is an uneven book, promising in places but disappointing in the end. The title and introductory material suggest more than is actually delivered, which amounts to a good discussion of some theoretical and historical issues (not all of which directly pertain to imperialism) and a less impressive survey of very familiar material drawn mostly from existing scholarship on the heyday of empire.
The book opens with a clear examination of current debates among sociologists of science regarding the nature of scientific knowledge. The author's own approach is apparently moderate constructivism, with an emphasis on the social construction of science in "an explicitly institutional and historical dimension" (p. 7). By this Baber seems to mean that "Western science" (a term never defined here) is in some important way a product of the imperial experience, i.e., the growth of Western knowledge of the natural world reflects in part the specific needs and institutions, as well as the opportunities...