亨利•梅因爵士是19世纪英国历史法学派的代表人物，他最为人熟知的，无疑是《古代法》中的这一宏伟表述：所有进步社会的运动，是一个从“身份到契约”的运动。然而，梅因在任职于英属印度殖民地官员时，却对印度那原始的“身份社会”进行饱含同情的辩护，批评对印度进行过快的“现代化”开发，反对给印度制定成文法典。那么，梅因的理论与政治实践是否存在分裂？这种悖论性的现象背后，是否有更深层的原因？ 在《帝国的辩解》中，曼特娜集中讨论了梅因的政法理论、政治实践与19世纪帝国主义话语间的互动关系。通过把梅因的思想放置在自由主义思潮和英帝国殖民的“印度经验”语境中，作者精彩地展示了梅因对“传统—现代”、“普世性—本土性”的思考，是如何推动现代人类学、社会学的发展，以及如何影响帝国主义意识形态的转型——这一点对于我们理解今日世界的国际政治格局而言，丝毫没有过时。

"Alibis of Empire" presents a novel account of the origins, substance, and afterlife of late imperial ideology. Karuna Mantena challenges the idea that Victorian empire was primarily legitimated by liberal notions of progress and civilization. In fact, as the British Empire gained its farthest reach, its ideology was being dramatically transformed by a self-conscious rejection of the liberal model. The collapse of liberal imperialism enabled a new culturalism that stressed the dangers and difficulties of trying to 'civilize' native people. And, hand in hand with this shift in thinking was a shift in practice toward models of indirect rule. As Mantena shows, the work of Victorian legal scholar Henry Maine was at the center of these momentous changes. "Alibis of Empire" examines how Maine's sociotheoretic model of 'traditional' society laid the groundwork for the culturalist logic of late empire. In charting the movement from liberal idealism, through culturalist explanation, to retroactive alibi within nineteenth-century British imperial ideology, "Alibis of Empire" unearths a striking and pervasive dynamic of modern empire.