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Ghosts Of Empire: Britain's Legacies In The Modern World (2012)

by Kwasi Kwarteng(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0747599416 (ISBN13: 9780747599418)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury UK

review 1: Written by a conservative member of the British Parliament who is the son of immigrants from West Africa, this book attempts to spin a grand theory of the worldview that shaped and united the men (and they were men) responsible for administering various portions of the British Empire. While the book doesn't really succeed in it self-appointed task, it does deliver a set of concise, well-written essays that sketch the histories of six parts of the former British Empire (Iraq, Kashmir, Burma, Sudan, Nigeria, and Hong Kong). Each section of the book offers a wonderful introduction to a part of the world with which few Americans likely are familiar yet are important parts of today's world stage. Overall, Kwasi Kwarteng's book is a fast, enjoyable, informative ... moreread.
review 2: This book is a fabulous history of six of the British colonies: Iraq (a mandate), Sudan, Burma, Kashmir, Nigeria, and Hong Kong. It is a fabulous talle of the collapse of these ventures, or with Hong Kong, a surrender to China. So far, so good. But then it analyszes the colonial officers as elitests far out of the emerging norm of Britain. much more structured and class conscious. Still okay. But then the leap that the problems of these places is, in terms of Scottish justice, “unproven” that the elitism caused these problems. Surely the Sunni/Shiite problems of Iraq would have occurred anyway. It is written by a black with Oxford training so he knows the British system and has probably suffered from it. Still, a highly instructive read. less

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