Unfinished Empire The Global Expansion of Britain

by Darwin, John

• ISBN13: 9781620400371
• ISBN10: 1620400375
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-02-12
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Press

Summary

John Darwin's After Tamerlane, a sweeping six-hundred-year history of empires around the globe, marked him as a historian of "massive erudition" and narrative mastery. In Unfinished Empire, he marshals his gifts to deliver a monumental one-volume history of Britain's imperium-a work that is sure to stand as the most authoritative, most compelling treatment of the subject for a generation. Darwin unfurls the British Empire's beginnings and decline and its extraordinary range of forms of rule, from settler colonies to island enclaves, from the princely states of India to ramshackle trading posts. His penetrating analysis offers a corrective to those who portray the empire as either naked exploitation or a grand "civilizing mission." Far from ever having a "master plan," the British Empire was controlled by a range of interests often at loggerheads with one another and was as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength. It shows, too, that the empire was never stable: to govern was a violent process, inevitably creating wars and rebellions. Unfinished Empireis a remarkable, nuanced history of the most complex polity the world has ever known, and a serious attempt to describe the diverse, contradictory ways-from the military to the cultural-in which empires really function. This is essential reading for any lover of sweeping history, or anyone wishing to understand how the modern world came into being.

Author Biography

John Darwin has written extensively on the decline of Britain's empire and teaches imperial and global history at Oxford, where he is a Fellow of Nuffield College. His books include After Tamerlane, Britain and Decolonization, and The Empire Project.

Table of Contents

"A brilliantly perceptive analysis of the forces and ideas that drove the creation of an extraordinary enterprise … Bringing together his huge erudition, scrupulous fairness and elegant prose, Mr Darwin has produced a wonderfully stimulating account of something that today seems almost incredibly yet was, in historical terms, only yesterday."—Economist

"Engrossing … What Darwin adds to this [subject] is a rare, wonderful capacity for comparison .... It raises the historical writing on empire to another level."—BBC History Magazine

"Balanced, original and impressive … Subtle … intelligent."—Literary Review (UK)

"Comprehensive … Darwin’s erudition allows him to skirt around the narrow orthodoxies of apologist v critic and provide an insightful account of Britain’s unlikely period of global hegemony."—Sunday Times (UK)

"A breadth of perspective few other imperial historians can boast … Breadth of vision, fizzing ideas and a brilliant style as well as superb scholarship … It deserves to supplant every other book on this topic."—History Today (UK)