Slow burner but ultimately devastating

The British Empire was organised murder and theft for profit. This is not new. Nor is it unknown how key imperial figures (looking at you, Louis Mountbatten) were quite prepared to use one set of “natives” against another, setting up feuds that are still extant today - India and Pakistan, Kenya’s ethnic conflicts, Israel/Palestine, Cyprus. These particular examples are considered in some detail. The result of Caroline Elkins’ investigations are all the more damning because they’re not hyped up. The facts of what happened are allowed to speak for themselves. This is yet another book I’ve added to my “get it in physical form” list because there’s bits of it I’ll want to dip into again and again. Between this, Paddy Docherty’s excellent “Blood and Bronze” (a history of British exploitation of West Africa prior to formal empire and then transition to formal empire), Kojo Koram’s “Uncommon Wealth” and Mike Davis’ harrowing “Late Victorian Holocausts” (all the more valuable for its inclusion of Brazil, never formally a part of the empire, showing how economic domination was just as effective), modern scholarship has really begun to push back against the jingoistic rubbish of apologists for empire in the government (Gove and company) and their minions in academia (Ferguson et al). It needs as wide an audience as possible.

13 people found this helpful

Good but flawed,

I will preface my review by noting that this book was intended primarily for an American audience therefore skewed towards how Britain is viewed by the the United States. The author assumes that Britain is England and does not consist of the union of four states. Thus there is no real mention of, for example of the owning of slaves by wealthy Scottish merchants. The American voice narration is annoying, especially when attempting to impersonate British accents. On the plus side it is a visceral and believable account of the legacy of the violence perpetrated against peoples inhabiting the British empire.

10 people found this helpful

complete waste of money

After listening to a couple of hours it appears that the Author has too many politically biased views .

9 people found this helpful

Disturbing

This was an amazing peice of work and i believe it should be required listening/reading for anyone who requires a comprehensive insight into the colonial policies of the british empire. At times i found myself thinking...did this really happen? so sickened i was by what was being recounted sometimes in quite explicit detail.

9 people found this helpful

Prejudice

Whilst a well researched piece of work and an interesting listen, what comes across. most obviously is the prejudice of the author and their worldview which is essentially that old whitey is always racist all the time.

Plus references to Britain as “tiny island”. I suggest the author takes a holiday on Ascension Island to better I understand the meaning of the word.

2 people found this helpful

Excellent 👍

I loved learning about the UK'S dark past, thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it

A must read if wanting to learn about the British empire

A well researched and detailed study on the true horrors of British empire. Sheds much needed light on how the British gained, maintained and subsequently fought to continue to control and subjugate millions of people and their resources across the world. Essential reading for understanding monden Britain today.

A Fascinating Book Let Down by the Narrator

This is a great book, but unfortunately I found the narrator hard to listen to. It jarred that he was a man when the author is female and his American accent, strange annunciation and mispronunciation throughout were difficult going and detracted from the fascinating information in the book. I wish I'd just read it rather than bought the audio book.

Amazing

I wrongly though I was w
Ell informed about the British e
Moire.An amazing piece of historical research.

Well researched, not well read, quite a slog.

First of all, why is a book written by a woman narrated by a man? When men doninate academic fields, this seems like an effort to minimise womens' work further.

I found the narration grating and the tone a bit too American entertainment / presenter voice for the gravity of the topic.

But it is incredibly well researched and a much needed expose of the horrors of the Empire. As such it is not an easy read and I found I had to keep listening to other things for a while to break it up. It is very long but maybe that was necessary to provide a comprehensive critique. It was a hard slog, but worth it. I learned a lot and had my opinions on the Empire utterly vindicated. I have a much greater understanding of the Palestine-Israel conflict too.