the British empire
The greed and hypocrisy of the opium trade continue to shock
Amitav Ghosh admits he found writing his history difficult because of the obscene profiteering and suffering he had to cover
The British Empire’s latest crime – to have ended the Enlightenment
Richard Whatmore sees trade and colonisation in the 19th century as the great threat to Enlightenment ideals, and British imperialism as an unremitting force of darkness
Masters of the opium trade: the fabulous wealth of the Sassoons
David Abulafia admires the shrewdness, generosity and panache of the Sassoons over many generations
The British Empire is now the subject on which the sun never sets
Wrestling with the history of the British Empire is the unfinished and unfinishable project of our history. Time’s Monster takes…
The making of modern India
The sacrifices made by India on the Allies’ behalf in the second world war would profoundly affect the country’s future for better or worse, says Philip Hensher
Why the British make a virtue of defeat
When Henry Worsley died last month attempting the first solo, unaided expedition across the Antarctic, he was 30 miles short…
Britain didn’t fight the second world war — the British empire did
Had it not been for the empire, Britain might have lost the second world war, says William Dalrymple. The war certainly lost Britain the empire
British colonialism is once again under attack in Aatish Taseer’s sprawling Indian epic
Early in the second section of Aatish Taseer’s The Way Things Were we are presented with a striking description of…
The Irish Times: read by the smug denizens of Dublin 4 and responsible for the Celtic Tiger property bubble
The most successful newspapers have a distinct personality of their own with which their readers connect. In Britain, the Daily…
