Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain

About this book

John Darwins After Tamerlane a sweeping six-hundred-year history of empires around the globe marked him as a historian of "massive erudition" (the Guardian) and narrative mastery. In Unfinished Empire he marshals his gifts to deliver a monumental one-volume history of Britains imperiuma work that is sure to stand as the most authoritative and compelling treatment of the subject for a generation. It was hailed as one of the 10 best books of 2013 by Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post. Darwins penetrating analysis offers a corrective to those who portray the empire as either naked exploitation or a grand "civilizing mission." Far from ever having a "master plan " the British Empire was controlled by a range of interests often at loggerheads with one another and was as much driven on by others weaknesses as by its own strength. Unfinished Empire is a remarkable nuanced history of the most complex polity the world has ever known and a serious attempt to describe the diverse contradictory waysmilitary and culturalin which empires really function.