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A review by cactusfinch
Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson
2.0
If you've ever walked into a pub in Scotland and wished that one of those middle aged men at the bar would come over to you and talk about the good old days of the empire, with lots of details but a fair bit of (beer-in-hand-)waving to gloss over most of the numbers than this is the book for you.
Ferguson sets out to, or claims to, write a book that tells the truth of the British Empire, to counteract the morality arguments that are prominent in historical accounts of its rise and fall. However, this book is hardly fresh or new take on imperial history, but a repetition of British imperial glorification that is very common in British historians before the 21st century. He largely focuses on how better the lives of colonized peoples were with the British as their overlords (as opposed to any other imperial power, or god forbid self-sovereignty) without many citations or proof. Some economic theory is sprinkled in at some points, but no where near the amount one expects from his introduction or even his summarizing conclusion.
Ferguson writes well, and provides a smooth narrative of the British imperial gains, but struggles to include anything outside the antiquated narrative. Women are only victims of colonial horrors, or mentioned as cheating on their loyal husbands, and nationalist leaders, or any non-white prominent figures from British colonies, are vilified or trivialized. His apparent stab at diversity lays at the awkward insertion of queer history, in which he separates the real homosexuals from those men who just found men easier to talk to than women, and explicitly suggests that a guy told everyone he was violently gang raped because it was his gay fantasy. Okay.
Basically, be ready for mansplaining without citations and a lot of justifications of imperialism that ends with that's summed up with Ferguson's conclusion that Britain heroically sacrificed her empire in order to save the unknowing savages from the far worse fate of being ruled by the Japanese and Germans, and that this sacrifice expunged her from all previous sins.
Ferguson sets out to, or claims to, write a book that tells the truth of the British Empire, to counteract the morality arguments that are prominent in historical accounts of its rise and fall. However, this book is hardly fresh or new take on imperial history, but a repetition of British imperial glorification that is very common in British historians before the 21st century. He largely focuses on how better the lives of colonized peoples were with the British as their overlords (as opposed to any other imperial power, or god forbid self-sovereignty) without many citations or proof. Some economic theory is sprinkled in at some points, but no where near the amount one expects from his introduction or even his summarizing conclusion.
Ferguson writes well, and provides a smooth narrative of the British imperial gains, but struggles to include anything outside the antiquated narrative. Women are only victims of colonial horrors, or mentioned as cheating on their loyal husbands, and nationalist leaders, or any non-white prominent figures from British colonies, are vilified or trivialized. His apparent stab at diversity lays at the awkward insertion of queer history, in which he separates the real homosexuals from those men who just found men easier to talk to than women, and explicitly suggests that a guy told everyone he was violently gang raped because it was his gay fantasy. Okay.
Basically, be ready for mansplaining without citations and a lot of justifications of imperialism that ends with that's summed up with Ferguson's conclusion that Britain heroically sacrificed her empire in order to save the unknowing savages from the far worse fate of being ruled by the Japanese and Germans, and that this sacrifice expunged her from all previous sins.