A review by librarianonparade
The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire by Piers Brendon
4.0
There are innumerable clichés about the British Empire - that it was acquired in a fit of absent-mindedness by shopkeepers, that it was dismantled in a relatively benign manner, that on the whole it was the best of the Empires. Reading this book I'm not sure I can agree with any of those statements.
Spanning the years from 1781, just after the loss of the American colonies, up to 1997 and the handover of Hong Kong, this book is effectively one long history of acquisitiveness, greed, oppression, brutality and hypocrisy. I was quite shocked, to tell the truth. British colonial history never formed part of the syllabus at any point in my schooling, so I've never really known much about the Empire past Kipling and 'the white man's burden', the sun 'never setting on the British Empire' and the lingering legacy of the Commonwealth.
The most striking hallmark of the British Empire was, for me, the inherent hypocrisy at its very heart. The enduring claim was that Britain had a 'duty of care' to protect and nurture these colonies until they could mature to independence - an incredibly patronising attitude to begin with. But in actuality the Empire was far more about exploiting these colonies for our own benefits than any interest or duty to its native inhabitants.
The shadow of Rome hangs over this book like a cloud. All of the imperialists were incredibly aware of the fate of Rome, and the idea that the mother-nation would inevitably fall along with the Empire helps to explain a lot of the attitudes found in this book. What of Rome now, the imperialists would say. What of Macedonia and Egypt and Greece? They had a mortal fear of Britannia's decline and the notion of Empire was incredibly bound up in that. That Britannia still stands, more or less, whilst our Empire has long gone, bar a few rocky outposts that still prove a thorn in the side (say, the Falklands), is more a testament to the modern era than anything politicians, capitalists and imperialists did.
To be honest, it's a miracle any nation wants to be a part of the Commonwealth. With that kind of colonial legacy I'm amazed they want anything to do with 'Great' Britain.
Spanning the years from 1781, just after the loss of the American colonies, up to 1997 and the handover of Hong Kong, this book is effectively one long history of acquisitiveness, greed, oppression, brutality and hypocrisy. I was quite shocked, to tell the truth. British colonial history never formed part of the syllabus at any point in my schooling, so I've never really known much about the Empire past Kipling and 'the white man's burden', the sun 'never setting on the British Empire' and the lingering legacy of the Commonwealth.
The most striking hallmark of the British Empire was, for me, the inherent hypocrisy at its very heart. The enduring claim was that Britain had a 'duty of care' to protect and nurture these colonies until they could mature to independence - an incredibly patronising attitude to begin with. But in actuality the Empire was far more about exploiting these colonies for our own benefits than any interest or duty to its native inhabitants.
The shadow of Rome hangs over this book like a cloud. All of the imperialists were incredibly aware of the fate of Rome, and the idea that the mother-nation would inevitably fall along with the Empire helps to explain a lot of the attitudes found in this book. What of Rome now, the imperialists would say. What of Macedonia and Egypt and Greece? They had a mortal fear of Britannia's decline and the notion of Empire was incredibly bound up in that. That Britannia still stands, more or less, whilst our Empire has long gone, bar a few rocky outposts that still prove a thorn in the side (say, the Falklands), is more a testament to the modern era than anything politicians, capitalists and imperialists did.
To be honest, it's a miracle any nation wants to be a part of the Commonwealth. With that kind of colonial legacy I'm amazed they want anything to do with 'Great' Britain.