no i didn't read the full thing but i went through some chapters in preparation for my history exam and it was boring as fuck so i want the credit lmao sorry niall ferguson its not you its my growing hatred for choosing to study history at an advanced level

This book provides the historical tale of how the empire was built in the three hundred years to the Second World War and the decline which followed, as well as concluding with comments on the current world order.

The book had some interesting gems of information scattered throughout, which were interesting and enlightening. However, it would perhaps have been a more pleasurable read had it been laid out in chronological order, particularly in the earlier chapters, which described how the Empire was in its early development.

Not a bad book but I'm sure that there are better historical books out there which present the same information in a more captivating manner.

I enjoyed this. Well written but am not that sure it had that much to say that was new. The British Empire being a good thing is not that new an idea is it? The Penguin edition is very cheap and worth the few dollars alone.

The introduction and conclusion contain Ferguson's pro-empire arguments, while the body of the book is primarily a concise history of the British empire. The sections laying out his somewhat contrarian position are more interesting and probably more useful to readers than the actual historical narrative. I'm sure many readers will either be familiar with the covered events or uninterested in them. The history does provide a different perspective on some well-known historical atrocities, tragedies, choices, etc. Ferguson's argument would have benefited from deeper comparative and quantitative approaches. The reader has to take his word a bit on some of his descriptive claims about the economic effects of empire. I'm fine doing that but I'm sure there are readers disinclined to accept his claims. It would also be nice to see an updated version of this work with a deeper look at America's de facto empire. Ferguson does provide a little of this in Doom, but the claims about China in there now seem complicated by what's happened since its publication too.

Some parts were informative but ultimately has a blinkered positive view of empire.