Author(s): John Darwin

World History

This is a both controversial and comprehensive historical analysis of how the British Empire worked, from Wolfson Prize-winning author and historian John Darwin The British Empire shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents, carving out nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two centuries its expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events, and it remains surrounded by myth, misconception and controversy today. John Darwin's provocative and richly enjoyable book shows how diverse, contradictory and in many ways chaotic the British Empire really was, controlled by interests that were often at loggerheads, and as much driven on by others' weaknesses as by its own strength. Reviews: "A breadth of perspective few other imperial historians can boast. The British Empire really does look different in the light of it...Breadth of vision, fizzing ideas and a brilliant style as well as superb scholarship...It deserves to supplant every other book on this topic ...the one we've been waiting for". (Bernard Porter, History Today).
"A brilliantly perceptive analysis of the forces and ideas that drove the creation of an extraordinary enterprise...Bringing together his huge erudition, scrupulous fairness and elegant prose, Mr Darwin has produced a wonderfully stimulating account". (Economist). "Engrossing...What Darwin adds to this [subject] is a rare, wonderful capacity for comparison...Seeing the imperial experience in the round like this does gives us a clearer, more subtle appreciation of the range of power and violence at play. It raises the historical writing on empire to another level". (BBC History Magazine). "Balanced, original and impressive...Subtle ...intelligent". (Literary Review). "How incredibly refreshing it is when as distinguished an historian as John Darwin ...writes something as thoughtful, well-researched and persuasive as Unfinished Empire". (Andrew Roberts, Sunday Telegraph Book of the Week). "Comprehensive...Darwin's erudition allows him to skirt around the narrow orthodoxies of apologist v critic and provide an insightful account of Britain's unlikely period of global hegemony". (Sunday Times).
About the author: John Darwin's interest lies in the history of empires, both their rise and fall. He has written extensively on the decline of Britain's empire and teaches imperial and global history at Oxford, where is a Fellow of Nuffield College. Most recently he is the author of After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires, 1400-2000, which won the Wolfson History Prize, and The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, 1830-1970.