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Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power Paperback – April 14, 2004

by Niall Ferguson (Author)

4.6 379 ratings

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A bestselling historian shows how the British Empire created the modern world, in a book lauded as "a rattling good tale" (Wall Street Journal) and "popular history at its best" (Washington Post)

The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English language, and institutions of representative government -- all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population and culture from the seventeenth century until the mid-twentieth. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.

Displaying the originality and rigor that have made Niall Ferguson one of the world's foremost historians, Empire is a dazzling tour de force -- a remarkable reappraisal of the prizes and pitfalls of global empire.

Review

A New York Times Notable Book

"Scrupulous scholarship [and] a rattling good tale."―Wall Street Journal

"A concise and lucid exposition...Popular history at its best."―Washington Post

"Ferguson...is a wonderfully fluent writer, weaving telling details and vivid anecdotes seamlessly into his narrative."―New York Times

"An entertaining, engaging romp through four centuries of British imperialism."―Los Angeles Times

"Fluently written, engaging...Empire is a model of how to do popular history."―The Economist

About the Author

Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians and author of numerous books, including The Square and the Tower, The Ascent of Money, and Civilization. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Print length

400 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

April 14, 2004
Dimensions

6 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0465023290
ISBN-13

978-0465023295
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (April 14, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465023290
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465023295
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #95,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #67 in European Politics Books
- #233 in History & Theory of Politics
- #265 in Educational Certification & Development

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4.6 379 ratings

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Niall Ferguson

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Niall Ferguson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and current senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and founder and managing director of advisory firm Greenmantle LLC. The author of 15 books, Ferguson is writing a life of Henry Kissinger, the first volume of which—Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist—was published in 2015 to critical acclaim. The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild won the Wadsworth Prize for Business History. Other titles include Civilization: The West and the Rest, The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die and High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg. Ferguson's six-part PBS television series, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," based on his best-seller, won an International Emmy for best documentary in 2009. Civilization was also made into a documentary series. Ferguson is a recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service as well as other honors. His most recent book is The Square and the Tower: Networks on Power from the Freemasons to Facebook (2018).

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4.6 out of 5

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NPS

Masterful

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2020

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Niall Ferguson at his best, condensing four centuries or so in a readable book.

The British empire was not by smart design but an ad hoc concoction of trading outposts and colonies that evolved to a centrally ruled, geographically dispersed entity under the crown. The author analyzes the forces that kept it together as well as the reasons that led to its disintegration in the clash with other empires in the twentieth century. This is probably the weakest argument in the book since that British fought other empires until then successfully. It may be the sheer size of the conflict and its lethality that exposed the British Empire and had Churchill begging like Fala at FDRs doorstep. Or it maybe that the US had too many strategic and economic advantages that the British could not challenge and as a result the transition to the new hegemony under the US was a peaceful one. It is very clear that the US aimed for the disintegration of the Empire at the Bretton Woods conference.

There was no lack of opportunism, adventurism and greed. The British used their technological and financial prowess to control the seas. Naval power was the glue that kept far distant territories together.
The British never found gold and silver to plunder like the Spaniards and so they had to work harder at it.

It is always a mystery to me, how the British governed the Indian subcontinent of 350mm people with 1000 administrators and 65,000 troops. The author theorizes but I don't think the answer is complete.

The write up on the colonization of Africa is superb, specially the description of the religious climate at home.

The author sprinkles the narrative with economic data and that makes his arguments more convincing. Overall a worthwhile read.

5 people found this helpful

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Gaunilon

A History Worth Knowing and Weighing

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2003

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The main reason to read Ferguson's Empire is to learn more about this strange beast, mostly ignored or derided over the last half-century. An empire has its own circulatory system, its own way of extending its arms, and has not really been treated as a serious subject for decades. It provides another way of studying the history of globalization, and offers a coherent approach not available through other means. But does the subject have the vividness and drama to sustain a coffee table tome? And can an Oxford historian whose claim to fame has been two 400-page volumes on an 18th century Jewish banker make it worth reading? Is this thing worth the exertion to heft, let alone finance? And why should Americans even care about somebody else's past glories?
The book provides its own answer: it is worthwhile on every count. Indeed the subject grips you, the story is told dramatically, the plot twists and turns, there are lively characters. The text breaths, like something delivered energetically in a lecture hall, with passion. The pictures are a beautiful complement to what you read. From chapter one through the last, Empire reads well, informing as it entertains. On that basis alone the work is worth reading, and given the cost, worth owning (and flaunting) for a long time.
But does it actually make the case that the Empire helped the U.K. and the world as a whole? This matter seeps through the body of the text, but steps forward in both the introduction and conclusion. And further, an additional matter thrusts itself forward: should the U.S. take heed of this history and assume the imperial mantle, though it does not seem to want it or show much promise of carrying it well, given its short attention span and allegiance to "democratic traditions?"
It is this issue of Empire's worth and the U.S.'s potential imperial role that has driven this book and its author into the limelight. The argument is not made in the body of the text, but instead surfaces there only in a few places with a more forceful articulation in the introduction and conclusion. Ferguson admits a fondness for empire in the introduction, and the conclusion adds an American angle.
One can appreciate an excellent work of history, and then address this application of history within a philosophical argument about the British past and the American future. You can feel reasonably well armed for the debate on reading the body of the text, and can have some fun with the political argument. So despite its bulk and museum-like quality, Empire can serve as a springboard for serious thought and discussion. Not a bad way to spend at bit of time!

26 people found this helpful

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Salem Almudhaf

The Rise of the British Empire*

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2010

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The book presents a very comprehensive look at the British Empire. It fairly addresses its motives and sins, actions and consequences. The author bluntly defends the empire as a whole-similar to what contemporaries would say about the United States-in that people are more likely to take the achievements of an empire for granted than its sins. I guess what is meant by this is that people will enjoy the benefits of great empires but will at the same time judge and criticize its actions. The nexus between an empire's status and actions that make it what it is may be overlooked regardless whether these actions are proper or improper. An example of this that comes to mind is people live in the United States and call it an evil empire at the same time. The Author eloquently said the following about the British Empire, "For better, for worse, the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's age of Empire."

The earlier precursors of the British empire was the race by other European empires to acquire resources around the world. The British empire was most notably apprehensive about the Spanish and the French empires. These two empires were the first to colonize America. The Spanish empire succeed in controlling parts of the Caribbean and central America, where they found what they call El Dorado in the lase 1500's. El Dorado was a town in the Amazon, which literally means "the golden one" in Spanish. This city gave riches to Spain with its endless supply of gold. The French colonized parts of North America, most famously in Louisiana in modern day United States and Quebec in Canada. The motive of the French is to find something similar to what the Spanish found in El Dorado. Nevertheless, the chief purpose of exploring the Americas is to find goods and exploit resources that they can benefit from in Commerce.

The English learned from the Dutch how to manage their finances. For the Dutch were the first to pioneer the system of public debt that allowed the government to borrow at low interest rates to finance its expeditions. They also copied the Dutch in exploring India and creating the British East Indies Company to compete with the Dutch East Indies company in the 1600's. Another motive for the expansion is to compete with the Catholics. The English, being Protestant, saw it a duty to expand their faith and promote it world wide and not be overtaken by the Roman Catholics.

America

Before India, the most important part of the British Empire was the colony of Virginia, in modern day America, after the discover of tobacco in 1612. In 1620's, the first settlers in Massachusetts landed in Plymouth in the Mayflower in what they called New England-they called it that because its chilly climate is similar to that of England. Here in addition to tobacco in Virginia, the British found prosperity and wealth in fishery. "By 1770, New Englanders were about the wealthiest people in the world." This lead them to protest being taxed hefty and not have representation in the British Parliament. Therefore, in 1776, the American colonies declared their independence from the British and Formed the United States of America. The author claims that the British did not dedicate enough resources to the American revolutionary war because they had more important interests elsewhere in Asia and Africa, plus the British "did not have the stomach" to fight people of their own "white colonists who were determined to resist" their rule. Nevertheless, the proportion of English immigrants to the United States remained the highest among other immigrants for a long time.

Australia

The funny thing about Australia is that it was founded as a place where the British sent their criminals. Criminals were sentenced to go to Australia for certain number of years depending on the nature of the crime. Because the crimes did not have to be sever and small petty crimes were also punished with transportation to Australia, as the author puts it jokingly, "Australia literally started out as a nation of shoplifters." But after a system of development was implemented in the 1800's whereby when a convict completes his sentence he was given land and an opportunity to become wealthy, many indeed became wealthy. This, after a while, lead many Brits commit crimes on purpose so that they can get sentenced to Australia where they can get a better life after their sentence is complete.

India

The East Indie Company had monopoly granted to it by the Crown to the routes in the east. India was considered to be the crown jewel of the British Empire for its vast resources and proximity in Asia. Controlled chiefly by the British East Indie Company, the Brits had a good run in India by trading with the locals and benefiting from their skills. However, trouble started in the mid 1800's when the religious Englishmen sought to travel to India to Christianize Indian Hindus and Muslims. These efforts were greeted with violence and eventual revolt against the British rule and in 1857 mutiny started by the Indians killing every white person they saw. Of course Queen Victoria sent her army to crush the revolt, and crush them they did. As it was put, nobody shall treat her subjects with such ruthlessness and get away with it. The British merciless military effort in India at that time was compared to what the Germans did to the Jews in World War II. After the Mutiny was crushed and silenced, the English government instituted stricter rule over India and more soldiers were placed in India than ever before. However, the British prohibited preaching the Christian faith (or civilization) to locals and imposed the rule of law on its service member stationed there.

Technology

The invention of the steamship and the telegraph in 1851 virtually shrunk the world. Now, people could travel to America in days instead of weeks, and to India and Australia in weeks instead of months. Moreover, messages now take only an hour to travel from one continent to another. This lead to more control and coordination of the Empire. And the steam engine lead to faster stronger ships by which the empire controlled the seas. This allowed the empire to easily project power and wage wars all over the world and respond rapidly to danger all over its empire. The steam engine also gave birth to the train. This made traveling long distances in land, especially in India, easier and quicker.

"Vast superiority in logistics, firepower and discipline had overthrown an emperor [in Africa] with minimum of British Casualties."

*The book covered the rise and fall of the British Empire from the 1500's to World War II; however, this review only covers the rise of the British Empire up to 1900's.

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Gaspar Alberto Quijano Paredes

Lleno de buenas anécdotas y datos que no están en ningún libro de historia

Reviewed in Mexico on June 29, 2022

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Buen complemento para quien se pregunte cómo es que se puede tener todo, territorio, influencia y dominio de los mares, para luego irlo perdiendo paulatinamente, o a veces de golpe. Desentraña muchas preguntas que nos hemos hecho sobre cómo construir, voluntaria o involuntariamente, un imperio, y luego perderlo casi todo. Después del recuento histórico a lo largo de varios capítulos, el cierre de las últimas 50 páginas es fenomenal, y la conclusión del libro, con la propuesta implícita de un nuevo pseudo império informal, dominado por los EU, un hecho hoy dia de facto, es muy inquietante, además que deja abierta muchas preguntas y meditaciones sobre la viabilidad de este nuevo imperio. Sin duda la mejor parte del libro son sus últimas página, que recomiendo leer y reeleer.

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Tix

Son impeccable

Reviewed in France on June 29, 2019

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Très contente d'avoir enfin pu acquérir la version sonore du livre 'EMPIRE'. Les cassettes sont en bon état, le son est net, sans bruit de fond et la diction est excellente. Si les cassettes ne remplacent pas l'ouvrage, elles permettent de suivre sans grand effort et de se libérer de l'immobilisme requis par la lecture. Très satisfaite de mon achat. Merci.

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Guildwoodite

Fantastic read. Great tour through history of the British empire

Reviewed in Canada on February 27, 2017

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Well written history primer on the British empire. Helps to explain how we got where we are now and speculation for the future.

O. Delachaux

It arrived as announced in very good condition, look forward to reading it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2017

Verified Purchase

It arrived as announced in very good condition, look forward to reading it, seems extremely documented and full of learned analises.

kbach

Good!

Reviewed in Japan on February 15, 2013

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I got what I had expected and delivery was excellent.

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