| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
There have been two distinctive aspects to James Tully's approach to the study
of imperialism over the years, and both are put to work in these remarkable
volumes.
1
The first is his belief in two seemingly contradictory claims: (i) that
imperialism is much more pervasive than usually thought (conceptually, historically and practically); and yet (ii) that there are many more forms of resistance to it than usually appreciated. The second is the way Tully places the
situation of indigenous peoples at the heart of his analysis. This goes back to
his groundbreaking work on Locke, and his extraordinary re-interpretation of
Locke's work in the context of early modern discourses of imperialism. But the
situation of indigenous peoples also deeply informed his argument in Strange
Multiplicity
2
-and not only in terms of the central motif of the lectures provided by Haida artist Bill Reid. In that book, he sought to reveal and defend a
much richer conception of legal and cultural pluralism than had hitherto been
appreciated by liberal constitutionalists and their critics. Indigenous peoples
are not simply a litmus test for our thinking about pluralism but represent a
much deeper challenge to the way we conceptualize notions of citizenship,
sovereignty, democracy and freedom in the first place-and indeed the nature
of political philosophy itsel.
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