The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire

Fantastic. I read this while travelling to Shanghai, Rangoon, Singapore, Sydney - and got a literal sense of the huge scope of the subject matter. A controversial subject that, like most Brits, I didn't know too much about. Here it's handled with equanimity and insight, and it makes for fascinating reading.

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It's an eye opener in many ways and it does show Britain in a rather unflattering light. But if you want to get beyond 'gung-ho' patriotism and unconsidered criticism and get a clearer picture of the British Empire you'll find it useful. it is, however, a picture that needs a mature outlook to evaluate. It's easy to to be swayed by emotion and imperialism generates extremely strong feelings for many people. Like most of Mankind's efforts, the British Empire was a mixed and muddled business - at times tragi-comic at other downright farce. Interesting to read it in tandem with Peter Frankopan's two books on the Silk Roads. There's much room for thought.

Probably the most important thing to know, if you're thinking about buying this book, is that it isn't a conventional narrative history; if you want a primer on the course of the British empire this is not it. Rather, the author assumes a base level of knowledge and dips into bits of history as a sort of playground for his own philosophical and linguistic excursions. The results are joyous in parts and tedious in others.I gave it five stars for two reasons. First, it really brings to life how confused, messy and shambolic the London government was in its approach to empire, and how most of the time nobody could agree on what they wanted or were trying to achieve. Second, the impact of Darwin in empowering racism (a legacy that survived at least to my parents' generation). Evolution can be interpreted in a profoundly evil way, and often was.

I read this book with an open mind and with a view to see how different it was from other books on the British Empire which always end up praising what the Empire did for the colonized and ignore the darker facets of colonization and the racism. I come from a family that for over two hundred years lived under British Rule, first in India, then in Kenya. My grandfather's relatives lived in Singapore, Ceylon, Burma and Nigeria. The anecdotes and history recorded in my family verifies much of what this book describes and it is about time that those who support the Empire took a good hard look at themselves and realize what they are.

Although Brendon has managed to write an absoultely smashing documentation of the Empire's faults and atrocities over the centuries, the book is painfully long. The book can wander off topic occasionally, most notably into long accounts of significant figures' personal lives.On the plus side, no fact is ommitted. How the author managed to find some of these obscure quotes and refences from centuries ago is a mystery. The book gives the reader the feeling that you are benefiting from a lifetime of research that no ordinary man could accumulate himself.Don't be surprised that the British Empire is portrayed in a poor light, as you can deduce that from the book's title. The book really is only about incidences of bad foreign policy lead to colonies and dominions desiring independance. Brendon doesn't deny that there were many benefits bestowed on the Empire's subjects, but they would fomr a book of their own.

I bought this book originally for my father and when I began to read it I found the whole subject fascinating. I did not realise that much of my chidhood for good and bad had been shaped by the role of the British Empire in world affairs. In the final chapters I came across names of countries and people who had been part of news bulletins when I was a young girl and i relaised that I unwittingly formed part of this vast story.

An original book well worth reading for finding out things you did know before. I'm now waiting see if a book ever comes out on the Decline andfall of the British

Die Ausgangsthese scheint etwas gewagt. Davon auszugehen, dass das britische Empire bereits 1783 - also mit dem Ende der Herrschaft über die dreizehn nordamerikanischen Kolonien - im Verfall begriffen war, ist doch etwas über das Ziel hinausgeschossen. Dass wirklich alle britischen Politiker im Zeitraum der nächsten 200 Jahre mehr oder weniger bösartige oder unfähige oder arrogante oder rassistische Menschen gewesen sein sollen, scheint schon deshalb unwahrscheinlich, weil eine solche Sammlung von Schreckensgestalten sicherlich nicht in der Lage gewesen wäre, Viertel der Welt zu erobern und zu beherrschen.Dennoch bleiben zwei bemerkenswerte Aspekte: Dem Autor gelingt es darzustellen, dass es eben nicht nur die überwältigenden Stärke der Briten (die er meines Erachtens unterschätzt), sondern eben auch der Schwäche der Mitbewerber zu verdanken ist, dass es gelang, dieses Imperium zu errichten. Darüber hinaus wird auch deutlich mit welch brutaler Gewalt, genozidalen Anfällen, Folter, Mord und was dergleichen mehr ist, die Briten dieses Reich erst erobert und dann verteidigt haben.

This book is a must read for all lovers of history.. very well researched and written.

Piers Brendon has written a masterpiece on a very important subject, namely:why nations abhor occupation throughout history.To quote Edward Gibbon who said that "there is nothing more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in oppposition to their inclination and interest"-words which also sum up Brendon's argumentations about the British Empire's failure regarding its attempt to subjugate a quarter of the world.The thesis of the author is simple:from its inception, the Brits were doomed to finish- sooner or later- their brutal occupation on hundreds of millions.True, they were not alone;other countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, Holland have also experimented with oppressing others in the name of white man's (supposed)civilization.The will to force and enforce their mentality upon others is not something new :it had its origins in ancient history via the Roman Empire, which crumbled after a thousand years.The British thought that by imposing their manners, language, education and culture on other peoples they would succeed where others had failed.They were excruciatingly wrong.Not only were they mocked, spit upon,underestimated,despised,but they were also ridiculed and brought to farcical situations.Read this wonderful book and will will enjoy each sentence and page of it. Brendon is extremely skilled with words, and his opus has plenty of vignettes ,metaphors, anecdotes and lots of humour.Add all these to his vivid language and well- structured chapters containing depictions of folly and decadence, irony and devastation and will immediately want to re-read this superb piece of history.Brendon is describing the atrocities perpetrated by the British in many instances, such as the Amritsar butchery- all this in the name of progress and Western ideals.His twenty-two chapters are treated both chronologically and are divided thematically by the respective countries where the British had ruled.It is a pity that the editor did not include some maps showing the inexperienced reader where many exotic places are to be found.The only conclusion the reader comes after reading this book is that occupation of others is a crime against humanity-no matter where, when and how.The human race has always aspired for freedom and there was not, is not,and will never be a force in history to alter this.In short: this book will be the ultimate reference source, the alpha and omega of the decline and fall of the British Empire for years to come.This is a masterpiece with thousands of eccentricities and odd fellows swimming throughout its pages.Enjoy!

Good coverage of history, the author is well versed but the book is bombarded with information in minute detail, couldn't get past beyond 160 pages despite being an interesting topic. shows how brittle the British empire was despite all efforts and the overstretching of the empire was clearly visible

You should read this book because Piers Brendon is one of the very, very few authors who has the courage to examine the British Empire honestly. That Empire claimed (and many of its modern apologists still claim) that it ruled its hundreds of millions of subjects wisely and well, for their own good and to their own betterment. Any polity making this claim deserves tough scrutiny, and Brendon provides exactly this.In this book you'll find a tremendous amount of information about how the various regions were annexed, the motives for the conquests, the methods by which they were ruled, as well as the mentality of the rulers, administrators, soldiers, supporters and critics.I found this portrait of Empire fascinating and quite readable, although the more casual reader of history may find it a bit challenging at first. The author's style is certainly not terse, though I would not describe it (as some others have) as verbose. In a book that is as fact-rich as this one, i think that a more spartan style of writing would simply make it too dry and "dense" to be easily readable.This is, so far, the only book on the British Empire that I keep permanently on my Kindle; I refer to it frequently when reading other historical works that touch on the same subjects or time periods.I heartily recommend this book.