Crisis of the British Empire: Turning Points After 1880

excellent read

A charmingly written and insightful account of the gradual decline of the Empire. Mr Nicholson, as a former politician with a sound academic background (vide the Leo Amery diaries} brings a uniformly mature and balanced perspective to this highly controversial subject. His various counter factuals (what if?) are particularly fascinating, and I learnt much from his chapters on Tariff Reform (the vital nuances of which I was hitherto ignorant) . All in all, a most valuable contribution to the continuing Imperial debate, so often marred by risible tendentiousness.

This book gives one enjoyably to think, and often to think anew. Its analysis of determining events in our national history (the ‘turning points’) is trenchant. Its comments on the influencing and directing those events are shrewd. Its discussion of the ‘what ifs’, and indeed of the ‘why nots’, is challenging. The author, a former successful MP, and a considerable political historian, has evidently pursued such careful and devoted study of the events and the people that one feels he has his own Tardis, was there, and knew the protagonists well. A scrupulously footnoted work, it is clear that he is also both scholar and gentleman. The illumination he provides of the ‘turning points’ frequently offers new insights. He implicitly asks the reader to reconsider long-held assumptions about why we are where we are as a nation, and how our national interests have really been pursued, and whether we could have done better. Indeed, there is some new thought about underlying political, party-political and even personal agendas influencing those pursuits. The compass of the book is remarkable. One of many examples concerns the Balfour Declaration, the centenary of whose 67 words we are commemorating. The fresh examination of the imbroglio that genuine effort to help has created is important. And then there’s Africa……!The reader is not pressed to accept all the interesting conclusions or speculations, but is certainly stimulated by the suggestions of how we might have done better as a country with vital interests abroad to protect and to advance those interests: to advance not only national but also international and unselfish interests. As another example, we are bound by the author’s argument to consider how we might now have been in a very different and more advantageous position vis à vis the EU, on several reasonable assumptions: this despite our history of ‘one foot in and one foot out’ of Europe.A refreshing, impressive, even provocative on occasion, and illuminating book – and a good read to boot.

A few years ago we were all convinced that the era of printed books was coming to an end. Now, of course, we know that book sales are on the up again; but only of good books, that are physically well made and of course, most importantly, written by an author who knows and is enthusiastic about their subject and has the skills to share their enthusiasm with the reader.This book is a good example of the kind of book leading the upturn in book sales. The book is well printed, on good quality paper, it is a pleasure to hold and turn the pages. The printers have done an excellent job, but it's the writing that 'clinches the deal'. Though the subject matter could make for heavy going in the hands of some authors, the writing style of this book makes its contents easily accessible to the reader. At times it is almost as if one were with the author at a dinner party listening to him sharing his knowledge with the guests - this is a rare skill.The footnotes and bibliography testify to the considerable amount of research which has gone into this book, in spite of the writing style this is not a 'history light' volume. I'm quite sure that historical experts will take issue with some of the facts and opinions contained in the book and I leave that to others with more knowledge. It is none the less a considerable achievement to deliver a book that makes for such a pleasant read in a genre not known for giving pleasure to the reader.

A hugely insightful tour de force by a historian who has mastered the detail of some of the great turning points in recent British history yet writes in an accessible manner and does not shy away from controversy. Scholarship and opinion side by side in a way which definitely works for me, and led me to various 'what if's' that are both tantalising and frustrating!

This is a refreshing look at the generation which lost an empire and is still reaping the results of inflexible thinking and entrenched ideology. It is broad in its sweep and enriched by impressive scholarship; manifestly, Nicholson is confident in and comfortable with his subject. He challenges the left of centre political correctness which has bedevilled it for fifty years and even now is attempting to airbrush the Empire from our public spaces.and college quads.The time is right for this book. I do not think it will be the last revisionist look at the administration and governance of our of near and far-flung colonies but it certainly sets the bar very high for readability and erudition. Modern turmoil in the Middle East is contextualised by Nicholson's even-handed scrutiny. His grasp of our tragic failure to carry through Irish devolution just before the Great War leads the reader to conclude that in our own lifetime many British citizens who were murdered by terrorists would be alive today had Westminster not circled the wagons. The volume is attractive, its notes and bibliography encourage further reading.