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Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain
Unfinished Empire The Global Expansion of Britain Author:John Darwin John Darwin?s 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 Britain?s imperium?a work that is sure to stand as the most authoritative ... more »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.Darwin?s 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 ways?military and cultural?in which empires really function.« less