David Cannadine, well-known for his work on British monarchy and aristocracy, haschallenged with Ornamentalism the seminal work of Edward Said, Orientalism (1978).Cannadine here emphasises two propositions, that the history of the British Empire isinseparable from the history of Britain itself, and that the British committed themselves from1850 up to 1950 to reproduce in their colonies the same sort of hierarchical society thatexisted in Britain. The term ‘Ornamentalism’ describes how this hierarchy was made visibleand obvious. The author explains the importance of the ‘Honours’ given to ‘natives’ from thehigher ranks which were modelled on the ones given to the British officials. Ornamentalismbelongs to a new wave of studies that started a decade ago, and is now integrally part of thenew historiography of the British Empire