Does anyone know where I might find a good, objective book on the history of the British Empire? I read Niall Ferguson’s book and bought Patrick N. Allitt’s lectures from the Great Courses, but they all seem to be liberal apologists (at best) for their motherland’s brutal imperialism. I’ve noticed that whenever they would address an atrocity committed by the British, they would typically stipulate it with a “but the Americans/Soviets/Nazis were worse!” Not saying that all of those arguments are without merit, but it doesn’t seem terribly productive.
I’m more interested in looking at it through a critical, historical eye. One that doesn’t shy away from the damage it did, and focuses more on the real-world impact it had on its subjugate peoples.
Sadly there are plenty of books by apologists for the British empire which have become quite popular (Niall Fergusson's is one of the worst) and critics of the empire are still surprisingly little heard in Britain itself (although of course in academia its a bit different). There are however, luckily, lots of critical histories you may be interested in. Richard Gott's Britain's Empire: Resistance Repression and Revolt is a very good critical overview. It is not very objective, its designed to provide a corrective to books like Fergusson's. Another very good critical history is Shashi Tharor's Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India. You may also like Walter Rodney's classic How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, it doesn't specifically focus on the British empire but its an interesting and comprehensive critique of imperialism focusing on the economic effects. John Darwin's histories of the British empire, Unfinished Empire and The Empire Project are not critical but are very good, reasonably fair, and extremely well researched general histories which I would recommend. Another very good book you may be interested in is Linda Colley's Captives. Its a very clever history of the empire focusing on the unique and forgotten stories of individuals trapped in unqiue experiences. It tries to highlight the diversity of empire and to question some of the categories we use to understand it (its also a great read).
Hi there, I would particularly recommend Jon Wilson's India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire, which takes a consistently critical view of the British Empire in India. You might also be interested in the South East Asia section of our booklist which contains many works on the British Empire in Asia.