This is a history 2.0 on the grandeur and decline of the “Sun never set” British Empire. England, the few islands off Europe is able to colonized 25% of the world population and land. British robbed Spanish silver with pirates such as Francisco Drake for the Royal coffer. With such unjust enrichment of capital for the Industrial Revolution for raw materials and markets by human trafficking and genocides to native people...
1Report
It is not Niall Ferguson's intent to rewrite or beautify the history of the British Empire--although he started as a young enthusiast for the British Empire, after he studied history more meticulously, he came to realize that the costs of the empire had "substantially outweighed" the benefits. Instead, Mr. Ferguson takes on a more modest thesis: that Britain made the modern world. As ambitious as this sounds, Mr. Ferguson...
3Report
Let's start with the reviews. When you read them, try to keep in mind the simple fact that this book is both describing an historical era (the British Empire) and assessing it. Not all historians do the latter; and too many are content to do a boring job of the former. I think Ferguson does a superb job on both fronts, but it is nonetheless possible to disagree with his assessment of the empire while admiring his well-paced...
1Report
The main reason to read Ferguson's Empire is to learn more about this strange beast, mostly ignored or derided over the last half-century. An empire has its own circulatory system, its own way of extending its arms, and has not really been treated as a serious subject for decades. It provides another way of studying the history of globalization, and offers a coherent approach not available through other means. But does the...
1Report
Niall Ferguson has made a name for himself as the historian of counterfactuals, or imaginative looks at "history as it could have been." He was the editor of Virtual History, which provides alternate scenarios of past events, and the author of The Pity of War, a look at World War I which concluded that the world would be immensely better off today if the British had stayed out in August 1914 and let the Germans win. Now in...
1Report