John Darwin's account of how the British Empire actually worked — its mechanisms, actors, contradictions, and the question of why it ended when it did.
The empire as process: not a monolithic thing but a collection of different imperialisms (settler, commercial, strategic) operating through different mechanisms. The role of private actors: merchants, missionaries, soldiers of fortune — empire-building was not always state-directed. The instabilities: the empire contained the seeds of its own end — nationalist resistance, liberal conscience, financial limits. A more nuanced account than either triumphalism or condemnation.
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