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Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Niall Ferguson's compelling tour de force, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World is published to coincide with a Channel 4 TV series. Ferguson, author of The Pity of War and The Cash Nexus, does not so much provide a synoptic survey of the British empire since the 17th century, as an arresting argument about why it arose, and how it fell. Ferguson's emphasis throughout is on the pursuit of economic profit and military might.
Piracy overseas and a taste for sugar and spice at home, combined with an unerring ability to vanquish rival European powers such as the Dutch and French in the dash for stash and status across the globe. But Ferguson is also alive to the peculiarities of British dominion: the manly and Christian civil service--less than a thousand strong--who ruled India, missionaries such as Livingstone, who explored and mapped as they preached and the barons of empire--Rhodes, Curzon, and Kitchener--who found in empire an outlet for their homoeroticism.
The book is brilliant and persuasive on trade and buccaneering before 1750, on India, on the late Victorian imperial mentalité, and on the two world wars, but less convincing on the empire of white settlement, and strangely silent on the most difficult colony of all, Ireland. In the end, Ferguson's penchant for polemic gets the upper-hand--the book closes with a controversial balance-sheet of the gains and losses of the British imperial experience--but he provides a riveting read nonetheless. --Miles Taylor
Customer Reviews:
a fascinating story
Niall Ferguson has a very readable writing style and tells the story of the British empire in a non 'text book' style which made me reluctant to put it down as I always wanted to know what happened next. It made me realise there was much about the British empire I didn't know, despite being of a generation born when much of the world map was still coloured pink. The bad bits, like slavery, which were the ones I knew little about, were in there along with the author's assessment of the positives of 'Anglobalisation'. Extracts from the book were used in my recent Open University course 'Empire' and this made me want to buy the book for myself. A good read.
One of the best books ever
Amazing book really full of logic and based on facts and not updated theories. Gave you a new and positive view about colonialism
EMPIRE
Superb, comprehensive and thorough. A brilliant review of the British
Empire, how and why it happened, how it was maintained and ultimately how and why it broke up. A balanced , thought provoking account of the way our world now and into the future is and will continue to be heavily influenced by the Empire on which the `sun never set`. It tells the good, bad and sometimes very ugly account of the British Empire and comes to some interesting conclusions, most of which I found myself in agreement with. Highly recommended.
False sense of glory 
I am not happy at how the British were ruthless to get their aims met. I know of witnesses who saw how the British would chop off Indian weavers' hands to preserve their own cotton industry. Terrible. A force of satanism not of good.
Brilliant, engaging from start to finish
If you want a balanced, superbly written analysis of the British Empire, then this is it. My knowledge of history is pretty weak, after reading this book, it was like a door had opened. A real pleasure to read.
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http://www.amazon.de/Empire-Britain-Made-Modern-World/dp/0141007540
