Empireworld
Empireworld
Empireworld
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
15
Empireworld
Empireworld
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
Empireland examined imperialism's lasting impact on Britain. Empireworld traces the legacies of British empire across the globe. 2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire's influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries to nearly 1 in 3 driving on the left side of the road, and even shaping the origins of international law. Yet Britain's idea of its imperial history and the world's experience of it are two very different things. In Empireworld, award-winning author and journalist, Sathnam Sanghera extends his examination of British imperial legacies beyond Britain. Travelling the globe to trace its international legacies - from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond - Sanghera demonstrates just how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world. And why it's time Britain was finally honest with itself about empire. PRAISE FOR EMPIRELAND 'Empireland, [a] scorching polemic on the afterburn of empire' Ferdinand Mount, Financial Times 'This book should be on the compulsory reading list of every secondary school in the country' John Simpson 'A compelling and distressing look at how imperialism has defined modern Britain' David Harewood 'I am sold on the larger part of Sanghera's thesis, that the empire could be rotten and we didn't know enough about it . . . The history is on Sanghera's side. The facts speak for themselves' Tim Stanley, Daily Telegraph
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Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe is Sathnam Sanghera's follow-up to his previous book Empireland, which examined the impacts of British imperialism on modern Britain. In Empireworld, Sanghera expands his analysis to assess the global legacy of the British Empire. However, while this is an important subject, Empireworld ultimately proves to be a disappointing and overly gloomy read.
The book sets out to systematically document the widespread and long-lasting effects of British colonial rule across the world. Sanghera succeeds in comprehensively cataloging the far-reaching political, economic, and social repercussions of imperialism in a wide range of former colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. However, the book adopts an almost encyclopedic approach, with Sanghera meticulously detailing one grim consequence after another in dispassionate prose. The result is a dense, dry text lacking narrative flow or nuance.
Moreover, Sanghera's perspective remains stubbornly pessimistic, focused on oppression, exploitation, and conflict. While these are undeniably part of the imperial legacy, there are only token acknowledgements of positive developments and progress in former colonies over the past decades. This gives the book a monotonous, depressing tone that is exhausting to get through.
After completing Empireland, Sanghera's previous book on the same topic, I found reading the thematically similar Empireworld to be an exercise in redundancy. Empireland already thoroughly convinced me of the damaging and deep-rooted impacts of British imperialism on our world. Unfortunately, Empireworld covers little new ground, just extending this bleak analysis globally while losing much of the personality that made its predecessor more engaging.
In examining such a far-reaching and multifaceted historical phenomenon, a diversity of perspectives and more nuanced analysis would have been welcome. While this book succeeds in comprehensively chronicling the adverse impacts of British imperialism worldwide, its gloomy tone and repetitive themes make it a tiring, 2-star read. I would recommend Empireworld only to readers with a strong existing interest in the topic and high tolerance for despondent historical narratives. For most, Sanghera's previous book Empireland will provide sufficient illumination of this dark chapter in history.
