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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:19:06 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
[Posted on behalf of David Levy. -- RBE]
The link between Carlyle's attack on economics, the Gov Eyre
controversy and Dickens' _Hard Times_ at one level is pretty simple.
We often think of socialist experiments as the alternative to market
organization. But between 1840-1865 the real alternative was societies
organized along the lines of racial slavery.
Carlyle as advocate of racial slavery? Well, duh. Look in the OED for
the "dismal science." Why was classical economics "dismal"? Simple:
for its coalition with "Exeter Hall" in black emancipation. If the Fraser's
"Occasional discourse the Negro question" is hard to get, I'll send a
copy. The OED error is interesting. (When Carlyle grumbles in *Past
and Present* about the waste of 20 million pounds, do editors help you
understand what that means?) The same number occurs in "ODNQ."
Why is this a waste?
Mill responded next month, Jan 1850. Carlyle's "Present Time" the Feb
1851 Latter-Day Pamphlet contains what I read as a response to Mill.
Carlyle proposed that if slavery does not work, then racial
extermination is in order. (Of course he said the same thing in
_Chartism_ about the Irish.) Right. For Carlyle genocide is a policy
option.
Just talk? Well Eyre turned theory into practice. Did anyone note the
connection? Why would one think that Carlyle headed the Eyre
defense?
Dickens? There are a couple interesting texts. One is his review of
Uncle Tom's Cabin which he wrote with Morley and published in his
magazine _Household words_. Here Dickens proposes a reform of
slavery to heal the minds of slaves instead putting them into the market.
Dickens extermination fantasy is found in _Noble Savages_, also in
_Houshold Words_. Did anyone notice? Sure Lord Denman's protest
is completely clear.
_Hard Times_? I've a paper in which I argue that HT might be read as
a response to _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. I don't make too much of it but
when Ruskin first opened the literary defense of Eyre, I think he
juxtaposed HT and UTC. The link I take is that for Dickens there is no
moral difference between markets and slavery -- everthing depends
upon the kindess of masters. On what side of Eyre was Dickens?
When my book _How the dismal science got its name: classical
economics and the ur-text of racial politics_ comes out I'm going to try
to persuade the publisher to use as dust jacket illustration the most
remarkable image I found on a collection of Ruskin snippets of Ruskin
as St George killing a somewhat non-standard dragon. [Note from
Ross -- the illustration is fascinating: Ruskin slays a person (obviously
black) holding a bag bearing the words "The Wealth of Nations."
Beside the dying man is a book entitled "The Dismal Science."]
Let me repeat an earlier offer to send papers forthcoming or circulating.
I can also provide copies of the more difficult-to-obtain texts. It is
easier for me to send them out from [log in to unmask]
David M. Levy
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