The Anarchy

William Dalrymple's 2019 history of the East India Company — arguing that the first corporate takeover of a sovereign nation was conducted not by the British Crown but by a private company — tracing the Company's transformation from merchant enterprise to imperial power across the 18th century.

Reframes British imperialism as corporate imperialism — The Anarchy's central argument is that India was not conquered by the British state but by a for-profit corporation answerable to shareholders, making it the world's first and perhaps most devastating example of corporate power displacing political sovereignty.