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Inglorious Empire
- What the British Did to India
- Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's Summary
In the 18th century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalized racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.
British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial "gift" - from the railways to the rule of law - was designed in Britain's interests alone. He goes on to show how Britain's Industrial Revolution was founded on India's deindustrialization and the destruction of its textile industry.
In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain's stained Indian legacy.
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What listeners say about Inglorious Empire
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James Moseley
- 01-07-20
An entertaining and provocative history
Having lived in India for two years and having researched and written two books while there, I vaguely knew a fair bit of Tharoor's thesis, but this book drew threads of information that I was vaguely aware of into a carefully woven Bayeaux tapestry of the corrupt British Raj. It makes you think. The more history I read, the fewer heroes I have. This book answers questions that I have often fleetingly considered, such as how England ever managed to dredge up the resources to win the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War, and WWI and WWII - apart from getting bailed out by the USA in the latter two. Well, the answer is, they were siphoning off the human and material wealth of India and using it to prop themselves up against what otherwise would have been insuperable enemies. I also understood from this study for the first time how so many upper class Britons in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries managed to lead lives of such idle affluence - they did it directly or indirectly by picking India's pocket. Tharoor is pretty fair, which is refreshing. He freely admits the failures of Indians which permitted the English to subjugate them and also recounts the resistance that eventually put British Dominion to an end. You might consider this book one-sided, but that's defensible, because it is meant to be a thesis and exposé of the Raj, not a full trial by jury of the defendants, the Colonialists, and the plaintiff Indians. Still, Tharoor is good at acknowledging the arguments that arise against his, and personally I find Tharoor's thesis more persuasive than the antithesis. Mercantilism was a shockingly rapacious and cruel thing and those who practiced it had much to be ashamed of. But we should be careful not to read history backwards. The bad stuff that the winners in history did are probably the very things the losers wish they had done but couldn't manage to do. We will never know, but just as, in my view, we shouldn't lionize the rogues who won, we shouldn't too gullibly romanticize those who lost. As the Bible says so wisely, there are none who do good, not one - all fall short of the glory (worth) of God. The great value of history, apart from its riveting dramatic value, is the moral lessons it teaches - how we may rise on the stepping stones of the dead past to be better than our forbears.
37 people found this helpful
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- V
- 11-30-20
A must-read for Desis like me
From one American daughter of Indian parents to others like me, I implore you to read this book to better understand the history of the British Raj, whose legacy continues to affect a billion people. Mr. Tharoor is clear and interesting, and seems fair.
If you are anything like me, when you are sitting in any given room, there are often plenty of loud voices to speak out against injustices past and present against a great many peoples, but perhaps only your voice to speak for the history of India.
In elementary school we had to pick a hero to do a project on and I chose Mahatma Gandhi. My teacher pulled me aside privately in the middle of class to ask where I had sourced the information from and whether I had spelled his name correctly because she didn’t know anything about him. I was the only child pulled aside. I remember sitting back down afterwards, and looking at the drawing of the little girl next to me, whose hero was Gloria Estefan.
Flash forward to sitting in history class with my hackles raised as my teacher spoke of the exalted Winston Churchill like he was a hero, while I, knowing he treated India horribly, but not having more information in my tween head, sat silent and confused and sad. Flash forward to my teacher on the school bus telling me India seemed so poor and dirty when he went, and why couldn’t they fix their problems, while my dry mouth couldn’t protest that he didn’t understand what this great nation was recovering from. Flash to my inability to explain the British empire’s role in the bengal famine. But 3 million people died. The white guy said well aren’t there like a billion people there anyway, plus famines happened, it was probably just a drought. Flash to the multiple people who said India wouldn’t have a school system or railways without the British.
Please don’t think that ignorance and callousness were limited to the uneducated or to my childhood. I am a physician in California and routinely run into comments from other doctors that show me that they have no idea how recently India was under British rule, let alone the consequences of 200 years of exploitation.
I am grateful to have read this, and am only sorry I didn’t do it sooner. My highest recommendation.
28 people found this helpful
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- Aditya Sen
- 07-19-20
The best crystal ball is a rear view mirror!
The book is a must read for all from the present day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. It is heartbreaking to know and understand what humans have done to each other in the past. The book also throws light on one darkest phases of Indian history where the country was heartlessly partitioned.... how a nation of Hindus and Muslims that lived together for 1,300 years was brainwashed into believing that they couldn't live with each other anymore.
To read this book is not to blame Britain but to understand the past in order to learn from it and empathize with our ancestors.
Shashi Tharoor himself rightly puts it - "History must remain in the past. But understanding it is our duty."
8 people found this helpful
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- Chris D.
- 06-11-20
Britain as bad or worse than the US
Britain abolished slavery in 1833 but exploited India until 1947. I didn't really know that much about Britain in India, but safe to say they weren't shy about working every advantage to gain the upper hand, make money and keep power. It's unbelievable how ruthless they were, rivaling the US treatment of Native Americans and blacks. The book itself was a bit dry but the narration was good. Overall a decent book I'm glad I listened to.
5 people found this helpful
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- Stephanie
- 07-12-20
Thorough Undoing
...of each argument of colonial apology. A very honest and sobering account. A must-read.
3 people found this helpful
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- Christopher
- 01-24-20
Healthy antidote to Raj romanticism
This book is a biting indictment of the two centuries of British rule in India. While the author makes the point that not all the ills of modern day India can be laid at the feet of the British, he is very clear on the problems that do owe something to the legacy of colonization, and particularly from the disordered and irresponsible way in which Great Britain shed India after the Second World War.
The arguments are cogent, the evidence appalling. They serve as a useful and powerful antidote to the sort of rose-colored romanticism that comes from works of British fiction around the end of the Raj, like Paul Scott's "Jewel in the Crown" tetralogy. In an era when the legacy of post-colonial troubles is front and center, it would be well to understand what actually went on in the empire on which the sun never set.
3 people found this helpful
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- iglam_u
- 04-15-21
Love it
Great book by Shashi. Wonderful narration of audio books. Eye opener for people who are ignorant and have wrong notion of British. I enjoyed this book 😃
2 people found this helpful
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- Jitendra Kumar Meena
- 12-31-18
one of the best from Shashi Tharoor!
liked the narration, presentation of facts and a calculated, critical assessment of British Raj in India.
2 people found this helpful
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- Khadim Hassan
- 09-03-21
Good book but with a slight Anti-Pakistan rhetoric
Then book covers the essentials well and is mostly on point but fails to acknowledge Jinnah’s role and mostly demonizes Pakistan.
1 person found this helpful
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- JK
- 08-19-21
A MUST READ FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN ENGLISH HISTORY!
I have read many books about English history. This book sheds a different light on their history, it is a total eye opener on their role as
colonialists, they certainly don’t come out “smelling like a rose”.
i.e. their deplorable role during the Indian famine.
The author mentioned Churchill as being a racist.
I came to that same conclusion, listening to “Gandhi & Churchill”, by Arthur Herman, a four star book all around. I am somewhat disappointed in Churchill, because he was such a great man in so many ways, but apparently a real Englishman of his time.
I highly recommend this book. The author did an excellent job narrating.
My thanks to all involved in making this book available to us, JK
1 person found this helpful
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Rejecting fragmented histories of nations in the making, this bold revision surveys the shared institutions that bridged difference and distance to bring stability and meaning to the far-flung empire. By supporting new schools, law courts, and railroads along with scientific and artistic advances, the Habsburg monarchs sought to anchor their authority in the cultures and economies of Central Europe. A rising standard of living throughout the empire deepened the legitimacy of Habsburg rule.
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Ideal for students of empires, nationalism, minorities and ethnic groups
- By Uther on 02-11-17
By: Pieter M. Judson
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Russia in Revolution
- An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928
- By: S. A. Smith
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the 20th century. Historian S. A. Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the 19th century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s.
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Excellent centenary look at the complete revolutio
- By Privet on 09-13-18
By: S. A. Smith
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Empire
- How Britain Made the Modern World
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red, and Britannia ruled not just the waves but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries.
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It wasn’t all bad was it?
- By Dennis Arve Wilkinson on 01-18-18
By: Niall Ferguson
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The English and Their History
- By: Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 43 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Robert Tombs' momentous The English and Their History is both a startlingly fresh and a uniquely inclusive account of the people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history.
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A lengthy but intriguing look at the English
- By Timothy on 09-15-16
By: Robert Tombs
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Communism [Modern Library Chronicles]
- By: Richard Pipes
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the acclaimed Modern Library Chronicles comes an exploration of a promising theory that when put to practice wreaked havoc on the world. An expert on communism, Richard Pipes follows the history of the Soviet Union from the 1917 revolution to the Cold War, and finally, to its deterioration and collapse.
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BEST Short Summary of Global Communism
- By SPFJR on 07-22-19
By: Richard Pipes
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Civilization
- The West and the Rest
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Niall Ferguson
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The rise to global predominance of Western civilization is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five hundred years. All over the world, an astonishing proportion of people now work for Western-style companies, study at Western-style universities, vote for Western-style governments, take Western medicines, wear Western clothes, and even work Western hours. Yet six hundred years ago the petty kingdoms of Western Europe seemed unlikely to achieve much more than perpetual internecine warfare. It was Ming China or Ottoman Turkey that had the look of world civilizations.
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Thoughtful analysis of the ascendancy of the West.
- By Patrick on 05-25-13
By: Niall Ferguson
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The Habsburg Empire
- A New History
- By: Pieter M. Judson
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Rejecting fragmented histories of nations in the making, this bold revision surveys the shared institutions that bridged difference and distance to bring stability and meaning to the far-flung empire. By supporting new schools, law courts, and railroads along with scientific and artistic advances, the Habsburg monarchs sought to anchor their authority in the cultures and economies of Central Europe. A rising standard of living throughout the empire deepened the legitimacy of Habsburg rule.
-
-
Ideal for students of empires, nationalism, minorities and ethnic groups
- By Uther on 02-11-17
By: Pieter M. Judson
-
Russia in Revolution
- An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928
- By: S. A. Smith
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the 20th century. Historian S. A. Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the 19th century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s.
-
-
Excellent centenary look at the complete revolutio
- By Privet on 09-13-18
By: S. A. Smith
-
Empire
- How Britain Made the Modern World
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red, and Britannia ruled not just the waves but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries.
-
-
It wasn’t all bad was it?
- By Dennis Arve Wilkinson on 01-18-18
By: Niall Ferguson
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From the Ruins of Empire
- The Revolt Against the West and the Remaking of Asia
- By: Pankaj Mishra
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent's anticipated rise to dominance.
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Breathtaking Scale, Cohesion and Vision of Asian History
- By Oscar C. Huerta on 03-18-19
By: Pankaj Mishra
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A Concise History of Italy
- By: Christopher Duggan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Since its formation in 1861, Italy has struggled to develop an effective political system and a secure sense of national identity. Christopher Duggan's acclaimed introduction charts the country's history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the present day, and surveys the difficulties Italy has faced during the last two centuries in creating a unified country. Duggan successfully weaves together political, economic, social and cultural history, and stresses the alternation between materialist and idealist programs for forging a nation-state.
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Concise indeed
- By nikex on 03-22-21
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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A People’s History of the World
- From the Stone Age to the New Millennium
- By: Chris Harman
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 29 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Chris Harman describes the shape and course of human history as a narrative of ordinary people forming and re-forming complex societies in pursuit of common human goals. Interacting with the forces of technological change as well as the impact of powerful individuals and revolutionary ideas, these societies have engendered events familiar to every schoolchild-from the empires of antiquity to the world wars of the 20th century. In a bravura conclusion, Chris Harman exposes the reductive complacency of contemporary capitalism.
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Changed my view of history and explains so much!
- By Nothing really matters on 09-14-19
By: Chris Harman