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  • Colonialism

  • A Moral Reckoning
  • By: Nigel Biggar
  • Narrated by: Matt Bates
  • Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)

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Colonialism

By: Nigel Biggar
Narrated by: Matt Bates
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Publisher's Summary

The Sunday Times Bestseller

A new assessment of the West’s colonial record

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the ‘End of History’ – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever.

Now however, with Russia rattling its sabre on the borders of Europe and China rising to challenge the post-1945 world order, the liberal West faces major threats.

These threats are not only external. Especially in the Anglosphere, the ‘decolonisation’ movement corrodes the West’s self-confidence by retelling the history of European and American colonial dominance as a litany of racism, exploitation, and massively murderous violence.

Nigel Biggar tests this indictment, addressing the crucial questions in eight chapters: Was the British Empire driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate? Should we speak of ‘colonialism and slavery’ in the same breath, as if they were identical? Was the Empire essentially racist? How far was it based on the theft of land? Did it involve genocide? Was it driven fundamentally by the motive of economic exploitation? Was undemocratic colonial government necessarily illegitimate? and, Was the Empire essentially violent, and its violence pervasively racist and terroristic?

Biggar makes clear that, like any other long-standing state, the British Empire involved elements of injustice, sometimes appalling. On occasions it was culpably incompetent and presided over moments of dreadful tragedy.

Nevertheless, from the early 1800s the Empire was committed to abolishing the slave trade in the name of a Christian conviction of the basic equality of all human beings. It ended endemic inter-tribal warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities of global trade, moderated the impact of inescapable modernisation, established the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free press, and spent itself in defeating the murderously racist Nazi and Japanese empires in the Second World War.

As encyclopaedic in historical breadth as it is penetrating in analytical depth, Colonialism offers a moral inquest into the colonial past, forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Nigel Biggar (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic Reviews

‘A fascinating read, informative, surprising and written with panache and clarity’ The Times, Andrew Billen

‘A thoughtful, compelling text’ Daily Telegraph, five-star review

‘A salutary corrective’ The Times, Book of the Week

What listeners say about Colonialism

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Well researched and argued

Biggar demonstrates that many of his critics are in the sway of post-colonial theory.

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Brave and brilliant

A powerful counter argument to leftist propaganda. Thoroughly researched and at the same time engaging and everything opposite to boring. Truly convincing.

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Helpfully considers history

Author did well to remind readers of standard tests on history and provided considered and discriminating examination of evidences. Very interesting to read a counterpoint to the current shouting on the topic.

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Standing-up against Evil

A long overdue work against irrational and selective self serving view of colonialism.
Loved the factual references as much as I disliked them, making the book a statistic at times.
Great performance.

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A balanced reckoning. Engaging and informed.

Engagingly narrated. Draws on wide research and data and many primary sources. Does justice to people of our past. Most interesting and informative. In modern history colonialism is judged a wrong and a blight. This balances the record and this is overdue.

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Counsel for the defence

In places I thought he might have gone a little too far in apologising for the British Empire, but it still provides a desperately needed counter to fashionable anti colonialism. To borrow from Monty Python “what have the British done for us?” Quite a lot actually

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Things are often complicated

This book highlights that's humans do ourselves a disservice when we over simplify extremely complex issues. This book goes a long way to explaining the good, bad, and neutral forces of history that saw European people (mostly British) colonising the glob. It's not an attempt to obsolve European people of the horrendous things that happened. But an attempt to take a more balanced look at what actually happened. It should be mandatory reading for all students and teachers.

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Ethics and Empire done accessibly and well.

The author’s project at Oxford came under woke fire and several attempt to have it cancelled and him with it. This carefully argued book turns the tables and shows how those politically motivated efforts ignored the rich moral complexity of real history. Highly recommended as an example of scholarship done really well and accessibly.

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interesting

Interesting work. I liked that it was a different point of view from what we are given these days which tends to be very anti colonial (at least in my circle). I thought it had some really good points. Would read more from this author.

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Absurd.

About as credible as Putin’s version of history. Some valid points but the author has a British nationalist agenda.

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