Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #117819 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Review
'This is an immense book...It's the telling, often hilarious detail that propels the vast narrative'.
--Independent

'he has not only followed major contours but has also skilfully filled in the crevices, often with wry humour' --History Today

Literary Review
'Quite simply, a masterpiece of historical narrative'

Scotland on Sunday
'Brendon with an acute eye for detail...serves up a veritable gorefest in which all sides slake their lusts'

Customer Reviews

Absorbing. Balanced and an excellent true yarn.
Im still reading this, It gives a considered and riveting tale of my Countrys History. Keep an open mind, fantastic achievements by towering figures, they were Empire builders and Empire spoilers, working to the values and ethics of their times. Reads like an action packed novel. Well done ancestors and well done this author.

Wide ranging, absorbing account of the last years of the British Empire
By pulling together the experiences of so many countries, this book provides a fascinating insight into the diversity of the colossus that was the British Empire. India, Burma, Ceylon, Nigeria, Kenya, Cyprus and others described in this book all made different journeys to independence which helps us, to some degree, better understand these countries today some 50+ years after independence.

Of course one constant remains: "perfidious Albion". But the book does maintain a balance by describing both how Britain conducted itself in its colonies (which at times is appalling) but also providing the context relative to both the time of these events and the conduct of other colonial powers.

The only criticism is the relentless references to Gibbon's study of the end of the Roman Empire. These don't add significantly to the story and make the book, at times, something of a struggle to read.

Ambitious
This is an ambitious attempt to chronicle the rise and fall of the British Empire. And it is by no mean flawless. Still, the book's "unromaticising" of the Empire must not be taken too personally by some of the reviewers here. There is no victimisation - considered the looting the Empire has inflicted on its colonial subjects. This book is one of course readings at the LSE (not the bourse). And it is an eye-opener. I would also suggest "Merchants to multinationals : British trading companies in the nieteenth and twentieth centuries" by Geoffrey Jones, which explains more about the political economic impacts of the British Empire.