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mrvm's review against another edition
3.0
I love studying, reading, and talking about Imperialism, especially the British Empire. I believe that the empire is great, and has done a lot of good, but I can still see the harm it has done, unlike Ferguson. He focus so much on why the empire was so fantastic that he is convinced that nothing bad happened, because he does not acknowledge this, as a historian and a person, I think his argument is not fully made. Yes, as historians were are supposed to acknowledge our biases to the reader, and he does, and use that to shape a bit of our argument, because history is subjective, but we can't ignore the other side of e argument all together. Overall it is a good read, but, I say this as a historian who studies British imperialism, take it with a bit of salt.
donzhivago's review against another edition
1.0
For the first time in my life, I am going to open a review with a personal attack on the author:
Niall Ferguson, you are trash.
400 pages of handwaving the copious atrocities of the Empire. In all, the Irish "famine" is provided 3 lines (summary: British laissez faire capitalism didn't respond well... this is seriously it), whereas the treatment of British troops by the Japanese is given over 3 pages.
Multiple times, this living turd exculpates Brits by comparing them favourably with literal Nazis.
He mocks American anti-imperialist attitudes while handwaving actual atrocities.
He fawns over Hitler.
At one point he posits that a homosexual person dreams of getting raped.
This is everything I assumed a British summary of Empire would be. Terrible beyond belief.
Ferguson, you suck.
Niall Ferguson, you are trash.
400 pages of handwaving the copious atrocities of the Empire. In all, the Irish "famine" is provided 3 lines (summary: British laissez faire capitalism didn't respond well... this is seriously it), whereas the treatment of British troops by the Japanese is given over 3 pages.
Multiple times, this living turd exculpates Brits by comparing them favourably with literal Nazis.
He mocks American anti-imperialist attitudes while handwaving actual atrocities.
He fawns over Hitler.
At one point he posits that a homosexual person dreams of getting raped.
This is everything I assumed a British summary of Empire would be. Terrible beyond belief.
Ferguson, you suck.
alexgmcm's review against another edition
5.0
A balanced view of the British Empire from its buccaneering beginnings as it preyed on Spanish merchant vessels to the post-war decline and rise of American hegemony.
The book often asks whether or not the British Empire was of net benefit to the world and concludes that it was -I am inclined to agree but the situation is more complex as doubtless the capitalist class of investors and so on benefited a great deal from the enforcement of free trade and the insurance offered by gunboat diplomacy on foreign investments, similarly it seems that the subjugated nations often benefited through the infrastructure and institutions instilled by the Empire and the political stability offered by accepting the 'Pax Britannia'.
But the gains were not equally shared with many who opposed Imperial authority being dealt with ruthlessly and British subjects at home bearing the lion's share of the tax burden for upkeep of the Empire while private enterprises and emigrants reaped much of benefits.
Nonetheless it was doubtless a better alternative to the German Reich with its 'Vernichtungsbefehl' or extermination order in its second incarnation and of course the Holocaust in its Third. The behaviour of the Japanese in Nanking and the treatment of British POW's leaves us with no illusion that Eastern Empire might have been better either.
Of course the British Empire had it's difficulties too with famines in India and Ireland and concentration camps in South Africa - but these were often tragedies of incompetence not malice. It is important to remember that the concentration camps in the Boer war were just that - camps to contain the displaced Boer population - not the euphemistically named extermination camps of Nazi Germany.
Whether the Empire was good or bad it was once the home of people from Tasmania to Toronto, from Surrey to the Sudan and will always remain a key part of world history. I believe, as Ferguson does, that on balance the Empire will be treated kindly by History - as we live in a new age of American dominance I wonder how the new superpower will be judged?
The book often asks whether or not the British Empire was of net benefit to the world and concludes that it was -I am inclined to agree but the situation is more complex as doubtless the capitalist class of investors and so on benefited a great deal from the enforcement of free trade and the insurance offered by gunboat diplomacy on foreign investments, similarly it seems that the subjugated nations often benefited through the infrastructure and institutions instilled by the Empire and the political stability offered by accepting the 'Pax Britannia'.
But the gains were not equally shared with many who opposed Imperial authority being dealt with ruthlessly and British subjects at home bearing the lion's share of the tax burden for upkeep of the Empire while private enterprises and emigrants reaped much of benefits.
Nonetheless it was doubtless a better alternative to the German Reich with its 'Vernichtungsbefehl' or extermination order in its second incarnation and of course the Holocaust in its Third. The behaviour of the Japanese in Nanking and the treatment of British POW's leaves us with no illusion that Eastern Empire might have been better either.
Of course the British Empire had it's difficulties too with famines in India and Ireland and concentration camps in South Africa - but these were often tragedies of incompetence not malice. It is important to remember that the concentration camps in the Boer war were just that - camps to contain the displaced Boer population - not the euphemistically named extermination camps of Nazi Germany.
Whether the Empire was good or bad it was once the home of people from Tasmania to Toronto, from Surrey to the Sudan and will always remain a key part of world history. I believe, as Ferguson does, that on balance the Empire will be treated kindly by History - as we live in a new age of American dominance I wonder how the new superpower will be judged?
youvebeenangied's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
sarahtokar's review against another edition
4.0
Good overview. He is a well known conservative author, but I didn't feel like he was an imperial apologist.
wolvereader's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
A high-level overview of the development and dissolution of the British Empire. As you might expect for a globe-spanning empire* the book had a broad sweep and didn't delve deeply into many areas, spending the most time on India and Africa. Ferguson is pro-Imperial, claiming that the empire brought law and prosperity to the colonies, and he mainly glosses over the negative impacts of colonialism. He finishes by making the case that the US would be a natural successor to the UK, but our distaste for empire makes it unlikely ("...the American approach has too often been to fire some shells, march in, hold elections, and then get the hell out"). Read with a grain of salt, but enjoy the overview of how a world empire came to be.
* apparently at it's peak one quarter of the world's landmass and a fifth of its people were under British rule