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wolvereader's review
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
jibraun's review against another edition
3.0
Ferguson's argument in this book mirrors much of his argument in his other work, Colossus. He argues that the British Empire served as a conduit for many benefits to the territories it ruled, including promotion of western government, western economic principles, and religion. He argues that these benefits likely would not have occurred without the rule of the British Empire. However, he does not skirt over the abuses of the Empire. In fact, he details many atrocities committed by the British in their attempt to assert global hegemony.
His arguments may appear to be overly simplistic, and perhaps, that is a necessary consequence of writing a one volume narrative on the entire history of the British Empire. For instance, equating a Sudanese Muslim leader in the 1880s who had taken the name of "Mahdi" with modern day Wahabbist Islamic leaders appears to be fundamentally illogical. How could a person who took a Shi'ite Muslim name be equated with a religious group (Wahhabis), when that religious group believes Shi'ite Muslims to be apostates.
His arguments may appear to be overly simplistic, and perhaps, that is a necessary consequence of writing a one volume narrative on the entire history of the British Empire. For instance, equating a Sudanese Muslim leader in the 1880s who had taken the name of "Mahdi" with modern day Wahabbist Islamic leaders appears to be fundamentally illogical. How could a person who took a Shi'ite Muslim name be equated with a religious group (Wahhabis), when that religious group believes Shi'ite Muslims to be apostates.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/160170.html[return][return]Ferguson's critics are not entirely fair. He is brutally honest about the downside of the British Empire - the nineteenth-century famines of Bengal and Ireland; the Amritsar massacre; the cynical parceling up of ancient African states; the South African concentration camps; the massive death rate among African slaves in the Caribbean. But he also argues that the Empire brought to the British a sense of engagement with the world which (he believes, and I think he's right) contemporary American lacks. More controversially, he argues that the countries ruled by the British on the whole ended up better off than they would have been if ruled by other empires or if left to their own devices. He doesn't really produce enough quantitative data on this point to satisfy me, though it's fairly clear that he has a case.[return][return]Some very interesting snippets: that in fact the Boston Tea Party was a reaction by smugglers to the reduction of the tea tax, which made their business much less profitable, and that the American colonists of the time were probably better off on average than the residents of Britain. His statistics on the large numbers of Scots and Irish, in comparison with the numbers of English, who participated in the activities of Empire. His somewhat cynical line on nineteenth-century moral panics over slavery, suttee, and the powers of native judges. All in all a very stimulating read.
robertemaurer's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it! But I have enjoyed everything I've read by Niall Ferguson. A fascinating look at the British Empire and how much of what we know of the world today is shaped by decisions made in the name of empire.
mroneil's review against another edition
3.0
Was Britain the best of a bad bunch? That is essentially the question that Ferguson asks here. An interesting read for someone like myself who has been a long-time opponent of imperialism in all its forms.
queenantipodes's review against another edition
4.0
Proceed with caution. A worthwhile read that provides a useful survey of an ambitiously large geography over the course of three centuries. And yet, at times the tone is noticeably apologist, and sometimes anecdotal. But there’s a lot to be gleaned from this title, as long as you’re willing to really scrutinise some of the bolder claims.