Empireworld: How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe
A nuanced, complicated account of the British empire’s impact on the world as we know it ... The raking light that Sanghera throws across the contradictions at the heart of the story of empire doesn’t come without some trepidation for the author ... But his larger response is to spell out the complexity of historical assessment with painstaking clarity, showing, repeatedly, the deep entwinement of the positive and negative contributions of empire.
Read Full Review >>
In Empireworld Sanghera aims not to make an "overall positive or negative conclusion about British empire" but to make "qualitative judgments, on a smaller scale". Of course readers may query some of these micro-judgments ... But this is not an objective history to settle all scores. Today, 2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. For one journalist to get to the bottom of all this is an impossible task. Nonetheless, there are plenty of new ideas, argued with passion.
Read Full Review >>
The charge sheet against imperialism grows with every page, even as Sanghera seeks to present more nuanced reflections ... Sanghera’s voice is present throughout the book as a generalist, distilling the work of specialists, but a tendency towards equivocation and qualifying comments may leave some readers pondering the strength of his beliefs ... Nonetheless, the book is assiduously researched and Sanghera is brave because even though his aim is "not to incite white guilt but rather to promote understanding", he knows that this work will not endear him to bigoted empire nostalgists.
Read Full Review >>
