Empire: How Britain Made: The Modern World

The book hardly has anything that a 10th grade student having studied history would not know. Moreover, the author has presented everything in a manner that glorifies British imperialism. The dark acts of British governments the world over have not been emphasized much and definitely not criticized (On the other hand, the author doesn't fail to take potshots on other imperial powers). This is one of the most biased books on history I have come across. The author is himself an Englishman and is nothing more than a Chauvinist. He even points that Imperialism brings order and thus necessary and towards the end makes a point that American Empire has "failed" just because it renounces Imperialism and thus fears to pursue it. He also says that there will always be (Imperialism) Empires and what Britain did best to carry what it believed was the White Man's Burden and it brought modern governance to the colonies!!! I am so shocked, how can an author of such high stature be such a racist scum-shit!!!

Wonderfully written book which moves effortlessly between UK, USA, Africa and India weaving an imperial story around colonization of America, slave trade in Africa, trade with and colonization of India. Spread over a sweep of 400 years starting circa 1500 this book puts the entire British empire in context.

That said, the author is a neo-imperialist and feels that British dominion was good for the world. Some people will be offended by this. The author's overall tone is one of "The natives got screwed but they got railways and telegraph", "Millions of natives died due to famine but they got free trade and the English language", "the colonised countries hardly had any per capita GDP growth over 300 years but they got democracy and rule of law" etc. If you can ignore such infantile opinions, this book is a great read simply because provided summary and context for the British colonization of India.

Niall Fergusson along with Simon Schama and John Julius Norwich are some of the finest writers of narrative history.One might also mentin Andrew Roberts, Michael Burleigh,Roger Moorehose and Eric Hobsbawm.Ferguson and Hobsbawm belong to opposite poles.Hobsbawm is a communist where as Fergusson is an apologist for colonialism particularly British,but that does not take away the fact that he is one of the most original historian wriring today.