Crimes of Empire Author:Graham Stewart Crimes of Empire draws on detailed archival research to judge some of the most ignominious moments of British Imperial history. The book cuts through the selective interpretations of the Empire’s detractors and admirers to consider the circumstances and mind-set of those who committed atrocities, showing how acts which seem horrific to us could ... more »to the perpetrators seem quite acceptable. Graham Stewart’s book examines in particular The Opium Wars of 1839–42 and 1856–8, in which the British shelled the eastern seaboard of China in order to flood China with opium (which in turn caused an epidemic of addiction) The annihilation by 1876 of all Tasmanian Aborigines. The British use of concentration camps during the Boer War, in which one-sixth of the Boer population died. The Amritsar Massacre of 1919, in which nearly 400 unarmed protesters were killed The Bengal Famine of 1943, in which one million Bengalis starved to death British scorched-earth policies against Malay insurgents in 1948 and again in the 1960s. Crimes of Empire will show Britons a side of their history that they have largely chosen to forget. But because Stewart is such a good historian (and a conservative, to boot), he will also place under scrutiny the claims of the victims who used their experiences to mould their identity and the shape their own distortions and prejudices in the name of freedom. Crimes of Empire is an explosively controversial history book that will set debate raging.« less