The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James (PDF)

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Great Britain’s geopolitical role has undergone many changes over the last four centuries. Once a maritime superpower and ruler of half the world, Britain now occupies an isolated position as an economically fragile island often at odds with her European neighbors.In The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, Lawrence James has written a comprehensive, perceptive, and insightful history of the British Empire. Spanning the years from 1600 to the present day, this critically acclaimed book combines detailed scholarship with readable popular history.“This is a stylish, intelligent and readable book.” —The New York Times Book Review

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I must say, having had all this mash crammed down my throat in an English school, that I never thought that I’d find myself coming back for a second serving. But, as is commonplace, one grows more nostalgic with age. So, I decided to give this book – rightfully called a survey – a poring over.My overall impression after reading the last syllable recorded here in this 600+ page overview is that it stays very true, perhaps too true, to its title, and is terribly, well, insular; that is to say, it takes into account none of the international events except as they impact directly on the British Empire. This type of approach comes across as a bit stuffy to me, perhaps due to my upbringing. One is reminded of throwing spitballs when the master wasn’t looking.On the other hand, the book constantly emphasises what to my mind is a shamefully overlooked subject in many histories: to wit, the disparity between how Britain’s inhabitants viewed the empire (as an enlightened, divinely inspired enterprise) and how those in the hinterlands administering and attempting to cope with matters saw things (Shoot the wogs first. Ask questions later.) This disparity among types of men and their deeply engrained perspectives is brilliantly cast into relief in Paul Scott’s The Raj Quartet, which is a far superior work, to my mind, for those who wish to understand the human aspect and psychology of empire.Be all this as it may, the book gives a good show in staying true to its mission and purpose. Contemporary readers may be surprised, for instance, to learn that Britain’s early (that is, before the Americans got around to it) abolition of slavery in 1833 was brought about in large part by what most today would regard as a repellant psychology. The book quotes Tory MP, and later PM Sir Robert Peel in a Commons debate, asseverating that Britain, “never would be able to convince the black population of Africa of the superiority of their European fellow men until slave trading has been eradicated.”P.186 Voting for abolition of slavery as a means of demonstrating racial superiority may seem a very dubious proposition to modern minds. But, as we all know, the past is a different country. They do things differently there.It must be stated that James qua historian does not take on a blimpish, reactionary viewpoint regarding the empire’s demise. In point of fact, he frequently makes those that resorted to those outlooks come across as quite absurd, dubbing them “feudal dinosaurs at war with evolution” P.617 among other appropriate and witty monikers. And his prose, despite a few errata, is quite readable. But there’s something about the whole “debt we owe to the empire” stated as the raison d’être in James’s Introduction to the work that can’t help but come across as stultified, and when he ends the book about the “yet-to-be-completed-fall of the British empire”P.638 – however well-meaning – with these two sentences:”Few empires have equipped their subjects with the intellectual wherewithal to overthrow their rulers. None has been survived with so much affection and moral respect.”P.639One can’t help but feel the urge to say what one has been thinking for some time to the schoolmasterly James:”Oh, do come off it old boy. It’s just not on.”

⭐The British colonial system first really got going in a big way with their colonies in the West Indies and North America in the early 1600’s. American schoolchildren typically don’t learn much about the British Empire after our clash with them during the War of 1812. Anybody lucky enough to have a chance to study the history of the world in the twentieth century may encounter it again at about the time most of Britain’s other colonies were finally obtaining their independence. Otherwise, what most of us know of the British Empire consists of the names of a handful of men (i.e. Captain Cook) and a couple of wars (the Boer War, etc.).Lawrence James attempts to fill in some of that empty space with this book. I learned some things I had not thought much about before. For example, he gives some of the reasons for founding colonies in the first place (it was to make money – duh!) and the means used to make money from the colonies in the 1600’s and 1700’s. I have read several massive volumes of American History over the past three or four years, and only one of them covered this aspect of colonialism in any detail – a shame because it explains so much of what happened at the end.I also had not thought much about the more far-flung reaches of the British Empire and how long many of these places had been British colonies. They were involved in India almost as early as they were establishing colonies in North America, and were fighting small (and sometimes larger) wars there frequently for centuries.The British Empire went on for so long and in so many places that no single book can do much more than hit the highlights of the story. There are necessarily some dry spots in this work, but on the whole, considering the scope and sometimes messy nature of the story it had to tell, it was generally clear and informative, if not always exactly entertaining.

⭐This excellent and very accessible book provided the story, insight, depth of analysis and objective overview of the British Empire I was looking for. Lawrence James covers huge ground both historically and in terms of global reach (so it’s not just about the Boston tea party, the Raj and the scramble for Africa) but a very comprehensive look at all aspects of the BE story. What I really liked about this was the objectivity throughout. He doesn’t stray away from the social and psychological impact of the BE – for example it’s impact in terms of race and class. What comes across is a clear sense of the way history has impacted world relations and the book is particularly resonant now given the whole issue of Brexit and a more nationalist leaning world. Definitely recommended reading

⭐I purchased this book to educate myself on the basics of The British Empire. It provides a good account of its inception, its golden age and its fall from power at the end of World war 2. It all seems rather accidental, rather than a master plan to control the world. I’m aware that every country has a dark history, I always remind myself that some of the behaviour was acceptable behaviour at the time and rejoice in the progress that has been made for humanity as a whole. We still have some way to go, but the British Empire provided good outcomes for its many subjects, it also provided suffering for others. You will have to balance these out and decide yourself if the British Empire was a force for good or not. A heavy but good read.

⭐Congratulations to Lawrence James on this extensive work, it is clearly excellently researched, and James’s intellect certainly shines throughout the book. However, I found the book pretty hard to understand and relatively boring at times. The book simply isn’t accessible to the average man or woman on the street, and this is a shame. But James clearly knows his subject very well, it’s just a shame that be can’t communicate his enthusiasm for the subject in a more comprehensive way. But then again, maybe I’m just dumb.

⭐brought at the same time as Niall Ferguson’s Empire book and read together, both I like, but both different, the Ferguson book a mix of words and pictures, but this one as stated on the back cover, a magnificent survey of four centuries of empire, and I couldn’t put it better, this is the best book I have ever read on the British Empire, a must have book

⭐A vast subject, which is hard to cover in a single volume, so in that respect the deal has been done. If you need a comprehensive summary of the British Empire, than this volume is a good as any, and will fill most of the gaps. You must, however, be prepared to turn a blind eye to obviously xenophobic comments regarding our European cousins (rather similar to reading weak articles from the Daily Telegraph) as, let’s face it, there is no reason to believe that the British were really any better, more altruistic, or more honorable than any other when it came to empire-building.

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