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The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
- Narrated by: Patrick N. Allitt
- Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's Summary
What were the forces that thrust the British Empire to its extraordinary position of greatness and then just as powerfully drove it into decline? And why is nearly every nation on earth, in one way or another, the consequence of the British Empire?
In these 36 lectures, Professor Allitt leads you through four centuries of British power, innovation, influence, and, ultimately, diminishment - four profound centuries that literally remade the world and bequeathed the complex global legacy that continues to shape your everyday life. This is a remarkable lecture series; one that will give you fresh insights into world history in a wide range of areas - political, economic, technological, social, and more. And it will also give you a comprehensive overview you won't find offered anywhere else - a context into which you can integrate new knowledge about this country, as well as understand the background of current events in so many other countries that were once part of Britain's empire, from Ireland to China, and in Africa and the Caribbean. Indeed, it seems fair to say that one cannot truly understand the most important aspects of world history without a firm grasp of the history of the British Empire. In giving you that grasp, these lectures draw on a vast range of critical events, riveting personalities, revealing anecdotes, and eloquent quotations.
Compelling, comprehensive, and astonishing in the force of its narrative power, each lecture will give you a refreshing new understanding of what made the British Empire both great in its achievements and vulnerable to its eventual downfall.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
What listeners say about The Rise and Fall of the British Empire
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- Ray
- 02-09-2023
Great; informative and balanced
Wonderful content and balanced views., one of the best historical audiobooks for sure. Highly recommended.
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- SW TUBBS
- 24-07-2022
An Excellent Overview
An excellent overview of one of the most influential, both good and bad, empires in history.
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- Alison
- 23-01-2017
brilliant
very well presented. easy listening but at the same time very thought provoking. thoroughly recommended for anyone wanting to understand how the English speaking world came about.
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2 people found this helpful
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- G
- 22-12-2017
Good, fair, interesting
A very interesting series of lectures covering the history of the British Empire in an honest, balanced fashion. It's very easy to look back with modern eyes and denounce what you think the empire was but these lectures worked hard to avoid that. A thorough, in-depth look at the empire's creation, expansion and eventual decline.
My two complaints are this: the lectures are from 2007 and are thus a little out of date, but this is only relevent when briefly discussing modern day ramifications of the empire, such as the rise of militant Islam in the West and Britain's relationship with the EU.
Secondly, the lecturer, though very informed of his topic and perfectly clear to understand, does occasionally flub a line and takes short breaks to collect his thoughts. These won't affect your learning at all, but I noticed them.
I would absolutely recommend these lectures. They're more important to understanding the world of today than many might expect.
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- Grant
- 27-02-2019
Relevance and Neutrality
This series of lectures if a fascinating, neutral look into the pros and cons of the British empire which are relevant even to this day.
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- Omar
- 07-04-2018
Everything you already knew and nothing you didn't
It was just one big overview that seemed to assume you had no knowledge of recent history at all and lived in a bubble. Way more detail was necessary and a lot - particularly the two lectures on literature - was unnecessary
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