An important work, if hard going

A mainstream narrative has developed over the last ten years which asserts that colonialism in general, and the British Empire in particular, is entirely and irredeemably evil. This has been the cause of much recent hand-wringing by many institutions in the United Kingdom and United States, and has perhaps been most obviously seen in the campaign over the last ten years to tear down the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College, Oxford.

In ‘Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning,’ Nigel Biggar seeks to balance this narrative by carrying out a more dispassionate examination of the British Empire and its many alleged atrocities. He does this from the standpoint of morality and ethics; hence, in each chapter he takes one of the chief accusations of this narrative, and puts that accusation under the spotlight of recorded history.

Thus, he addresses questions such as:

- Was the British Empire inherently racist?
- Was the British Empire built by forcible appropriation of territory?
- Was the British Empire rapacious and exploitative of its colonies?
- Did the British Empire carry out genocide?
And many others.

Whilst at no point claiming that the British Empire was ideal, or that it was perfectly governed, or that serious mistakes weren’t made (sometimes culpable ones), Biggar attempts to address these questions from an understanding of the decision processes being made at the time, the motivations of those who made those decisions, and the worldview which led to them. This work is therefore an important one, which should help to redress the one-sided judgements so often heaped upon the past by our contemporaries. Further credence is given to Biggar’s arguments in this book by the strenuous efforts made in some quarters to have it cancelled before it was even published (see, e.g., James Marriott’s article in the Times, 15 February 2023).

Important as this book is, I did find it rather hard going. Because the book is structured around particular moral questions, each chapter has a disorientating tendency to jump around between parts of the British Empire, e.g., from Canada, to Tasmania, to India, to New Zealand. For this reason, I found it quite hard to get through — but worth the effort of doing so.

Matt Bates’ narration is steady and clear, and perhaps most importantly measured. It is key to a book like this that it presents its case dispassionately, and in audiobook format the narration plays a vital rôle in this. If I have one criticism of the narration, it is that Bates at times sounds a little over-defensive (partly this arises out of the text itself, but only partly).

On the whole, though, this is an important contribution to public debate about Britain’s history, well narrated in audio format.

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Thoroughly necessary read

With all the politically and ideologically motivated reinterpretations of European and world history, this book is a true gem and a shining beacon for those of us who are genuinely interested in knowing truth about human history. A must read in my opinion.

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Fair and informative but not error-free

'The legacy of colonialism is not a simple one, but one of great complexity, with contradictions, good things as well as bad' - Chinua Achebe, 2013.

I thought this book was overall very good. It is not as you might expect, post-colonialism in reverse, distorting the evidence to the same degree but in the opposite direction. It is generally scrupulous and fair, as well as making for interesting and informative history.

But there were errors or omissions and they should be pointed out. Biggar somewhat embarrasingly quotes Nirad Chaudhuri’s preface to his 1951 'Autobiography of an Unknown Indian' as evidence of the author's support of British rule, when as Chaudhuri explained in 1997 'the dedication was really a condemnation of the British rulers for not treating us as equals'. He never addresses the 'secret memorandum' sent by Governor Evelyn Baring to the British government during the Mau Mau Rebellion in which he endorsed the use of 'violent shock'. More trivially, he says that the United States was spending 1/5 of its annual federal budget on paying off the Barbary Corsairs, when in reality the 1/5 figure ($1.25m) was cumulative over a number of years.

These are only the ones I, a non-historian, detected. No doubt when his academic critics scour the work for mistakes they will find more, and that is why it is important not to make them. Because otherwise, this was a better book than I was expecting and I stand by my five stars.

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Excellent, thoughtful work

A very thorough and balanced review on the British Empire. The author gives a fascinating insight on many of the key historical moments. The narration was very good also. Recommend!

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Enlightening

This book really made me think about all it discussed. It is a shame that so many choose not to openly discuss or consider much of the reasoned arguments within. I learned so much about our colonial past from this publication. We should all listen to as many sides of these stories as we can, with an open mind. Only then can we make our own ‘truly informed’ minds up about how we see life.

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1 person found this helpful

Brings balance to the debate

The author is clear of their own position and attempts to provide some balance to a debate that is all too often skewed to the extreme left.

No sensible person will clamour for the return of empire after reading this book, but will at least be able to see this small part of British history in a more reasonable context.

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Better even than I had hoped

It is very sad that a history of empire should have to be done on a theme of morality, but that seems to be the only thing that ‘academics’ now care for. This is a superb debunking of the worst fashionable revisionist writing.

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A fastidious correction of lazy & frankly ignorant prejudice

The book might, at first, appear to be a defence of empire - it’s not.

What it does is apply the meticulous methods of serious scholarship to a subject which has been ruthlessly distorted, often by bad scholarship, for political purposes. I was surprised and faintly ashamed by the fact that many of the assumptions I had accepted about colonialism and certain incidents frequently mentioned by critics of the British Empire, were the equivalent of hearsay weaponised by malicious gossip.

Biggar references a plethora of original documents from the colonial era as well as numerous scholars on both sides of the various arguments, & evaluates the positions presented in the light of his own academic specialism, ethics

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12 people found this helpful

Finally, a fair review of the British Empire.

1. The narrator is very pleasant to listen to.
2. The book is well structured and reasonably easy to follow. it does get a bit long haired/academic at times.
3. The author is refreshingly candid and unapologetic about being from the West. He is critical of woke-postmodern ideology and picks apart their attacks on the British Empire, without sweeping the British Empire's sins under the rug. Rather, he illuminates both sides of an event. People and institutions are given their dues, for better and worse.
4. This book is a good answer to much of the woke propaganda of the time. It is factual and thoughtful and blunt. In short, it is what academia should always be.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book. It is a refreshing breath of air.

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A top class piece of work

Superbly written. Clearly organised. A compelling account of the British Empire warts and all. Should be a key component of the history syllabus for at least the 6th form

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