zalamaan's review
3.0
The Book in Three Sentences
1 The British empire is not talked about enough in Britain today, and what is talked about are the good parts.
2. Lasting effects of empire include things like immigrants from colonies still feeling not part of the system due to racism, politicians wanting to keep the privilege of being an imperial power without the backlash, and people from colonies still identifying with traits made for them by the ruling powers to keep them in check (Sikh warrior race for example).
3. Arguing about what it is to be British is dumb, since the empire brought in peoples from all over. Street food in England has Indian influences, etc.
Impressions
The book talked a lot about things that I though most people would already know. The empire wasn't great for the people of the colonies, specifically people with different looks/skin colour. I'm not sure if I already knew this stuff because of my own bubble or if the author is oblivious to what most people believe. Although it is a good book, it seems fairly self-evident to anyone not white and sheltered and from a small town. I would've liked more detail on most of what he talked about. Every time he got to a good part in the chapter, I'd realize there was one or two pages left in it and he would start summing up/winding down.
I was interested to find out that although the abolition of slavery was led by the British, they also were the top earners from it first. Also, during abolition, the government paid the ex slave-owners for any 'property' and money they would have lost because of it. Meanwhile, former enslaved people got nothing.
How I Discovered It
It was discussed on Reddit and Twitter right after the Queen died. When people would come out and defend against others bashing her right after her death, others would point to this book to explain why the empire was bad for a whole lot of people.
Who Should Read It?
Anyone who still believes that the British empire was good for humanity overall. Anyone parroting the fact that the English abolished slavery as if that's all that mattered. Most of the left-leaning younger generation wouldn't need to, I think.
How The Book Changed Me
- Not much honestly, a lot of the information I had already known.
- Good to have a simple book to point to if someone asks
My Top Three Quotes
1 The British empire is not talked about enough in Britain today, and what is talked about are the good parts.
2. Lasting effects of empire include things like immigrants from colonies still feeling not part of the system due to racism, politicians wanting to keep the privilege of being an imperial power without the backlash, and people from colonies still identifying with traits made for them by the ruling powers to keep them in check (Sikh warrior race for example).
3. Arguing about what it is to be British is dumb, since the empire brought in peoples from all over. Street food in England has Indian influences, etc.
Impressions
The book talked a lot about things that I though most people would already know. The empire wasn't great for the people of the colonies, specifically people with different looks/skin colour. I'm not sure if I already knew this stuff because of my own bubble or if the author is oblivious to what most people believe. Although it is a good book, it seems fairly self-evident to anyone not white and sheltered and from a small town. I would've liked more detail on most of what he talked about. Every time he got to a good part in the chapter, I'd realize there was one or two pages left in it and he would start summing up/winding down.
I was interested to find out that although the abolition of slavery was led by the British, they also were the top earners from it first. Also, during abolition, the government paid the ex slave-owners for any 'property' and money they would have lost because of it. Meanwhile, former enslaved people got nothing.
How I Discovered It
It was discussed on Reddit and Twitter right after the Queen died. When people would come out and defend against others bashing her right after her death, others would point to this book to explain why the empire was bad for a whole lot of people.
Who Should Read It?
Anyone who still believes that the British empire was good for humanity overall. Anyone parroting the fact that the English abolished slavery as if that's all that mattered. Most of the left-leaning younger generation wouldn't need to, I think.
How The Book Changed Me
- Not much honestly, a lot of the information I had already known.
- Good to have a simple book to point to if someone asks
My Top Three Quotes
My parents never really explained why they came here beyond the fact that my grandparents had already arrived and they were entitled to call over dependants to join them, and they essentially corroborated Powell’s politics with their behaviour: never packing away the suitcases they had arrived with, resisting getting British passports in case they had to go back to India, and telling me that you voted Labour if you wanted brown immigrants to stay and Conservative if you wanted immigrants to go ‘home’.
More recently this sense of privilege and entitlement was inadvertently dramatized by a Brexiteer commenting on social media: he had campaigned to liberate the UK from the EU but when he found himself being forced to wait in an immigration queue at an EU airport in Amsterdam, he complained out loud that ‘this isn’t the Brexit I voted for’.
Freudian psychoanalysts believe that if you deny or repress a traumatic experience, you risk acting out versions of the original trauma in ways that can be self-defeating.
flobber2's review
5.0
Great book, well researched with a sharp insight into how Empire has shaped the national pysche.
On a side note, Year 12 Geography was the first time we learned about Empire at school. Might have been helpful to start a bit sooner...
On a side note, Year 12 Geography was the first time we learned about Empire at school. Might have been helpful to start a bit sooner...
samanthabw's review
3.0
DNF!
I stopped trying to read this at page 150. I have been slowly trying to read this book for 2 months and I just can’t anymore. I think it’s very well written and well researched but just way too dense for me. I didn’t find myself absorbing the knowledge like I wanted, and I was also never excited to pick it up. Maybe I’ll pick it up again in the future, or try the audiobook, but for now it’s going back to the library.
Also, the formatting of this book does not make the reading experience any easier. The typeface is so small that there are so many words on each page. I felt like it took me an hour to read 10 pages. There was so much information and research packed into each chapter it read like a textbook.
I stopped trying to read this at page 150. I have been slowly trying to read this book for 2 months and I just can’t anymore. I think it’s very well written and well researched but just way too dense for me. I didn’t find myself absorbing the knowledge like I wanted, and I was also never excited to pick it up. Maybe I’ll pick it up again in the future, or try the audiobook, but for now it’s going back to the library.
Also, the formatting of this book does not make the reading experience any easier. The typeface is so small that there are so many words on each page. I felt like it took me an hour to read 10 pages. There was so much information and research packed into each chapter it read like a textbook.
tseth's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
A very informative and balanced book on the impact of the British Empire on modern Britain. The author delves into many topics and aspects regarding the complex history of the empire that spans over 5 centuries. Very very detailed at points that I would get a bit bored but overall an interesting book that tackles the empire well and is very well researched as far as I can tell.