Review of Valeska Huber, Channelling Mobilities (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
The Suez Canal is a subject which has captured the imaginations of both academic and popular historians, often being presented as part of a narrative of technological progress in the 19th century. Valeska Huber’s book eschews this simplistic view of an engineering success story, however, and instead attempts a more novel global approach, analysing the Canal’s unique place as a ‘nodal point and lynchpin of various forms of mobility’ in an increasingly connected world. That there were multiple mobilities in this region forms the central argument of the study – showing that it was not just the journeys of privileged Europeans that changed because of the Suez Canal. By assessing the mobility of others, including nomadic tribesmen, those employed in the maintenance of the Canal, stowaways, criminals, and pilgrims, the study is able to demonstrate that the creation of the Canal did not create an era of unhampered acceleration for all global mobilities. Instead, it is shown that it was a period of ‘differentiation, regulation and bureaucratisation of different kinds of movement.’
The monograph sets its stall out in its first sentence: ‘at a time of global connections, localities matter’. As global flows of information, goods, and ideas were focussed through the Suez region, Huber argues that in the period of this study, 1869−1914, of these localities, the Suez Canal was most prominent. As a result, ‘the history of globalisation can be best understood by analysing one specific – and specifically global – locality’, the Suez Canal (1). By using a particular nodal point to examine different mobilities, it not only provides a novel perspective on global history, but also speaks to other areas of research. In particular it sheds new light on imperial networks, maritime mobilities, social history, subaltern studies, governance, political tensions, and imperial control. In doing so, the study introduces a variety of actors, from politicians, colonial officials, and wealthy travellers, to canal workers, stowaways, and nomadic tribesmen, providing ‘a micro-exploration of the Canal and its everyday processes’.
The book is divided into three sections, which are ordered by both chronology (although with some crossover) and theme. The first of these sections, ‘Imperial relay station: global space, new thresholds, 1870s−1890s’ assesses the initial period of the Suez Canal through the theme of institutionalisation. The first of the three chapters in this section explores how the Suez Canal was viewed by contemporaries, and how ‘these visions of a global space’ often contradicted each other. In particular, the book explores the tensions between the Canal as an international, universal entity, but also one which was inextricably contested by imperial ambitions. Conflicting views of the region also emerged about its place in a global world – was it a bridge of unification between East and West, a border zone, or an imperial outpost? Those travelling through also disagreed about the nature of the Canal as a locality. Whilst Egyptians saw the Canal as an Europeanised space, Europeans often spoke of its exoticism, and others of its hybridisation, a place where the whole globe gathered. Whilst globalisation has often been portrayed as progress, this hybridisation was often seen as a bad thing - the juxtaposition of the dregs of Europe and the worst of the East. The chapter concludes by showing how much of travellers’ expectations and experiences of the Canal were shaped by literature (particularly Kipling), travel guides, photography, and picture postcards, shown by the repetition of their itineraries, images, and descriptions.
The second chapter assesses how competing visions of the Canal constantly caused tensions between imperial powers, private companies, and the international community. Here, the book shows how the Canal was at the forefront of salient political questions caused by an increasingly interlinked world. Its status as infrastructure owned by a private company, yet also a crucial artery of empire, meant that it ‘turned into an acme in which the “rules of globalisation” were drafted and redrafted’ (73). By exploring the example of troop transports through the Canal, Huber elucidates issues of openness, neutrality, control, and military necessity. In doing so, the imperial tensions surrounding the issue are revealed, with the need for the swift mobility of troops at odds with the slowness of checks and controls and the monitoring or rival powers. The chapter also explores how resolving these issues through international conferences was particularly difficult, and rarely clarified the situation. Importantly, the book describes how consulates acted as imperial relays in the Suez region, showing the crucial role of intermediaries between the local and the global.
The third chapter assesses the key roles of companies and workers, showing that the successful functioning of such a large entity was a considerable undertaking requiring a multitude of actors. Workers were not only required to ensure the smooth running of ships through the Canal, but to ensure that they were stocked with fuel and provisions, and piloted successfully. In exploring the everyday operations of the Canal, and not just the labour involved in its construction, the book is able to explore the types of occupation that existed, as well as the hierarchies that existed within the labour force. These labourers, which came from both the Suez locality and the labour circulation of the Eastern Mediterranean, added to the sense of a ‘global locality’. Furthermore, looking at labour elucidates another level of integration that existed in the Canal Zone, that of the regional. The analysis that Huber provides is crucial to our understanding of imperial and global infrastructure – showing that what have often been seen as inconsequential actors were crucial to the smooth functioning of global flows. The book not only stresses that these stokers, engineers, pilots, lascars, and canal workers had vital roles in maintaining the mobilities within the canal, but also shows them as historical actors, and mobile subjects in their own right, subject to stereotyping and racial hierarchies, and able to strike and cause deceleration of ships through the Canal.
The three chapters in the second section, ‘Frontier of the civilising mission: mobility regulation east of Suez, 1880s−1900s’ assess the stigmatisation and bureaucratisation of indigenous and non-European mobilities through the Canal Zone. Huber shows how Europeans travelling through the canal would often contrast their own, modern, industrial mobility, with that of the traditional caravan route, and the nomadic Bedouin found across the region. In doing so, she again elucidates contradictions between European responses, which ranged from viewing it as timeless and unchanging, outdated and backwards, something for anthropological study, or as a romantic ideal. Even so, it was clear that the Canal was not a ‘contact zone’ but instead, a ‘zone of distancing’ (146). Importantly, the book also considers how the construction of the Canal affected traditional mobilities, particularly in creating a new obstacle to Bedouin movement. The difficulty in controlling these mobilities, however, caused perceptions of (and actual) danger from tribesmen. Yet, the traditional knowledge of these groups was also crucial to Europeans, particularly in the construction and extension of the Canal, where sourcing water and transporting goods by camel was critical, and in policing the surrounding region, particularly against smuggling.
The book is particularly strong when analysing how European fears and prejudices towards ‘others’ decelerated their mobility though the region. The fifth chapter, which analyses dhows (traditional boats) and slave trading, shows how the premise of stopping slavery, which was very much part of the British identity in this period, was used to restrict movement in the Red Sea. The rhetoric that developed cast the sea east of Suez, and the mainly Muslim traders that crossed them, as a separate, immoral place, equating Islam with slavery. Of course, this also had effects on local traders, and crippled local businesses, especially fishing. Interestingly, Huber points to the issue of steamships, which were subject to less stringent controls than indigenous shipping, despite evidence of smuggling. Again, the book shows the intrinsic contradictions of this modern/ civilised dichotomy, as, in order to fulfil these Britain had to rely on local knowledge for information about routes and hiding places, translation, and in using local vessels which were far more suitable for stopping boats.
The sixth chapter develops this idea of the fear of ‘other’ mobilities by exploring how the Suez Canal transformed the Hajj. The route of the pilgrimage was transformed by the Canal, allowing huge numbers of Muslims to travel to Mecca at least partly by ship. This caused inevitable worries for European powers, which saw these flows as potential carriers of disease epidemics and political upheaval into Europe. These anxieties point to another perceived dichotomy between East and West, with the Canal forming a barrier between the modern West and the diseased East. Measures used to prevent such epidemics were far from simple, however, and the book excellently explores the difficulties in implementing these at different levels. Britain, which possessed colonies with large numbers of Muslims, was careful not to antagonise them. Furthermore, such checks and measures delayed trade, and caused tensions with shipping companies. However, even where measures were implemented, at a local level, forgery, fraud, bribes, smuggling, and the mistakes of officials all caused issues with controlling the Hajj, again showing the importance of assessing the local within the global.
The final section, ‘Checkpoint: tracking microbes and tracing travellers, 1890s−1914’, assesses the dangers caused by the Canal’s potential for accelerating the mobility of diseases, criminals, and stowaways. The seventh chapter further explores the fear of contagion, and the methods imposed to contain it. As a narrow waterway, the Canal was a relatively easy place to install checks, acting as a ‘semi-permeable membrane’, not just as a metaphorical barrier (242). Huber points to the growing fear that the Canal was not just an accelerator of human mobility, but also of disease, and this led to several international conferences which looked to prevent such an epidemic. Again, the book highlights how the ambiguous political status of the canal led to a need for international solutions and common action. This action was increasingly based on a faith in new science, not least through quarantine, vaccination, and the use of chemicals and steam to kill bacteria. Again this had implications on the ground, where cooperation with local authorities was required, especially in classifying those passengers most at risk. Again, the study shows how these procedures generally decelerated the mobility of non-Europeans (especially Muslims) and lower class Europeans, whilst allowing first and second class passengers to pass without delay.
The final substantial chapter elucidates this idea of identification of passengers. It begins by assessing issues of who was accountable for individual travellers in cases of destitution, criminality, stowaways, and prostitutes, and the role of consuls and official papers. Once more, it becomes evidently clear that whilst elite European mobility was accelerated by the Canal (and in fact remained largely passport-free), ‘suspicious’ mobility was subject to various checks and measures, including official papers. Other problematic travellers, such as seamen who had lost employment, or become ill, caused problems with consulates and local authorities, who often had to pay for forced their mobility. Particularly interesting is the analysis of stowaways, which largely consisted of Europeans travelling east from British ports, looking for a new life in the empire. Again, repatriation of such significant numbers was a costly affair.
What is particularly striking about Huber’s book is its depth and variety of examples, which allow it to successfully address a myriad of different mobilities within the Suez Canal region. In order to achieve this approach the study is also particularly impressive for its use of sources, which include those held in France, Britain, Egypt, and the USA, in a multitude of languages, and written by a variety of authors. As a result, the central argument, that the Canal had differing, and often polar opposite effects on different mobilities is well argued and wholly convincing. Furthermore, its novel approach points to how further studies of the global and imperial can integrate the experience of a range of actors, and multiple mobilities, into the analytical frame. Moreover, it challenges future studies to consider the local, regional, and global together, and to more fully explore the role of what have often been seen as insignificant actors in the infrastructure which facilitated global flows. Indeed, the approach of this book would benefit many other subjects, and in the conclusions, Huber alludes to other spaces and infrastructures at ‘new points of interaction’ that could be approached in similar ways, including railway stations, harbours, and travel companies.
Although the organisation of the book into chronological sections does make some sense, the crossover between separate chapters can sometimes lead to repetition of arguments, and in a few cases missed opportunities to directly link examples across themes and time (particularly between pilgrims and the mobility of disease). The period of study, which equates to fort-five years, is perhaps short enough that a purely thematic approach could have been taken. However, these are small gripes, and the novelty of the approach, and the important perspectives of local and global mobilities this study gives the reader more than overshadow these.