He is the author of fifteen books, including The Pity of War, The House of Rothschild, Empire, Civilization and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur … What can I say? Access a free summary of Empire, by Niall Ferguson and 20,000 other business, leadership and nonfiction books on getAbstract. Such writing certainly brings out my political biases. While he is right about the cricket he is nuts if he thinks empire was a force for good, it has made Britain a few enemi. From January to mid-February 2003 six one-hour television programmes, four lectures to substantial audiences in the University of London’s Senate House, and a large glossy book have been devoted to his theme of ‘empire’ or, as he also puts it, ‘how Britain made the modern world’. View all copies ... "The United States today is an empire--but a peculiar kind of empire", writes Niall Ferguson in Colossus: the Price of America's Empire. From January to mid-February 2003 six one-hour television programmes, four lectures to substantial audiences in the University of London’s Senate House, and a large glossy book have been devoted to his theme of ‘empire’ or, as he also puts it, ‘how Britain made the modern world’. Niall Ferguson, author of other non-fiction hits as "Pity of War", "The Cash Nexus" and 2006's "War of the World" offers a modern analysis of one of the most influential empires in history. Refresh and try again. Access a free summary of Empire, by Niall Ferguson and 20,000 other business, leadership and nonfiction books on getAbstract. Ferguson does well to not get bogged down in complicated economic and political situations and breezes through in short paragraphs, giving the book light and fluid pace. Every once in awhile I try and give the political right a fair hearing by reading something of a conservative writer. https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Britain-Made-Modern-World/dp/0141975547 It isn't pretty, much of it. But I was completely wrong. thanks, Como lo dijo Burns, su negocio era «oprimir al publicano y al pecador con las ruedas despiadadas de los impuestos interiores».”, “From the point of view of most African-Americans, American independence postponed emancipation by at least a generation.”, “It was the Germans who first spoke of the war as ‘der Weltkrieg’, the world war; the British preferred the ‘European War’ or, later, the ‘Great War’.”, “In 1940, under Churchill’s inspired, indomitable, incomparable leadership, the Empire had stood alone against the truly evil imperialism of Hitler. It's a bit like if we in the West abolish a lot of Third World industrialisation on the basis of environmental concerns, after building our wealth and society through an unremitting exploitation of the world's natural resources. In Niall Ferguson's new book, the British Empire was a good thing for everybody -- and the American empire now being born should take lessons from our stiff-upper-lipped forebears. Ferguson thinks so, but it is difficult to prove on this reading. Ferguson's main point is that, all things considered, the British Empire was a good thing for the world. Niall Ferguson at his best, condensing four centuries or so in a readable book. This is an interesting book, to be sure, but nowhere near Ferguson's best. Discover lots of new and upcoming nonfiction reads this spring There are now, for example, more Anglicans in Nigeria than in England.”, “official irony, was said to be “in charge” of [a] seething, whining, weakly hive, impotent to help itself, but strong in its power to cripple, thwart, and annoy’.”, “At around the same time, the coffee house owner Thomas Garraway published a broadsheet entitled ‘An Exact Description of the Growth, Quality and Vertues of the Leaf TEA’, in which he claimed that it could cure ‘Headache, Stone, Gravel, Dropsy, Liptitude Distillations, Scurvy, Sleepiness, Loss of Memory, Looseness or Griping of the Guts, Heavy Dreams and Collick proceeding from Wind’.”, “Estamos lejos de ser contrarios a la introducción del cristianismo en la India […] pero nada podría ser más insensato que un intento imprudente o desatinado que introducirlo por medios que podrían irritar y suscitar sus prejuicios religiosos […] Es deseable que el conocimiento del cristianismo sea impartido al nativo, pero los medios que se han de emplear con ese fin deberán ser tales que sean libres de cualquier peligro o alarma política […] Nuestro poder superior nos impone la necesidad de proteger al nativo en la posesión libre y tranquila de sus opiniones religiosas.”, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. Refresh and try again. The British empire was not by smart design but an ad hoc concoction of trading outposts and colonies that evolved to a centrally ruled, geographically dispersed entity under the crown. Niall Ferguson's acclaimed bestseller on the highs and lows of Britain's empire Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red and Britannia ruled not just the waves, but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. And so, although his treatment of the British Empire in this book was recommended to me by someone whose opinion I would trust, I approached it with some caution. I wrote a paper on my initial reaction to the book, and after finishing it, I think my intuition was right. Yet what made it so fine, so authentically noble, was that the Empire’s victory could only ever have been Pyrrhic. The. In this fascinating reimagining of how the Brits pressed their culture, religion and ideas across the land, he explores what they did right, as well as what they did wrong. To see what your friends thought of this book. Ferguson's most revolutionary and popular work, EMPIRE is a major reinterpretation of the British Empire as one of the world's greatest modernising forces. By the eve of the Second World War, over a fifth of the world's land surface and nearly a quarter of the world's population were under some form of British rule. Does slavery provide the trump card in the game? with our author interviews, articles, and book lists! It's difficult to argue that the fabulous thing about slavery, from a British perspective, was that we abolished it. For one thing, I learned about a number of aspects of the British Empire that I had not known before - as an American, learning about this aspect of history was not required reading beyond knowing about the American Revolution. Thirdly, the introduction of foreign arts ... and the introduction of foreign capital, which renders the increase of production no longer exclusively dependent on the thrift or providence of the inhabitants themselves, while it places before them a stimulating example.”, “Salvo unas cuantas excepciones, la élite política británica, a diferencia de la élite intelectual mayoritariamente socialista, encontró muy difícil aceptar que el imperio tenía que desaparecer como precio a pagar por la victoria.”, “In the end, the British sacrificed her Empire to stop the Germans, Japanese and Italians from keeping theirs. Well, Mr. Ferguson's favorite poet is Donne and he also likes Thelonius Monk. Colossus: The Price of America's Empire by Niall Ferguson 384pp, Allen Lane, £20. The British were unique in cutting off their nose through abolishing a still very profitable trade. Did not that sacrifice alone expunge all the Empire's other sins?”, “Between a half and two-thirds of all Europeans who migrated to North America between 1650 and 1780 did so under contracts of indentured servitude;”, “Sir Richard Turnbull, the penultimate Governor of Aden, once told Labour politician Denis Healey that 'when the British Empire finally sank beneath the waves of history, it would leave behind it only two monuments: one was the game of Association Football, the other was the expression "Fuck off".' It is an empire, in short, that dare not speak its name. I think the jury may still be out, but it was good to hear a strong defense for empire when current cultural attitudes only inculcate sneering. Linda, Curated Reads: Nonfiction Books to Intrigue and Inspire. Hardcover $63.42 $ 63. The United States, Ferguson reveals, is an empire running on empty, weakened by chronic defecits of money, manpower and political will. Welcome back. From the Empire's humble origins of pirates and plantations to the Wars that bankrupted left it bankrupt, Ferguson brings the reader to all corners of the Empire, leaving no sun-lit stone untouched. Recommended for all history buffs. He is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. This is an interesting book, to be sure, but nowhere near Ferguson's best. Niall Ferguson is a glutton for exposure. “American Empire- it is an empire that lacks the drive to export its capital, its people and its culture to those backward regions which need them most urgently and which, if they are neglected, will breed the greatest threats to its security. Wow. Niall Campbell Ferguson (/ ˈ n iː l /; born 18 April 1964) is a Scottish historian and the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Niall Ferguson's a. Though the book's breadth is impressive, it is not intended to be a comprehensive history of the British Empire; rather, Ferguson seeks to glean lessons from this history for future, or present, empires--namely America. So, aren't we great for getting rid of it? ... Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations: IMDb Movies, TV & … Niall Ferguson, author of this book's sequel, "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire," gives his readers a crash-course in British imperial history starting with the English privateering raids on the Spanish empire and ending with the Suez Canal Crisis of 1956. Incluso el vaso de cerveza o whisky que consumía o cada pipa que fumaba estaban sujetos a impuestos. There is a widely held fiction that there is no such thing as an American empire. There were a few nit-picky issues I have with him, but I feel that this is great book that makes a far better case for, weird as it may sound, a Liberal American empire than his sequel to this book does. Civilization book. British were not the first Empire builders. I suppose I was naive to expect. It wasn't all news to me but much of it is an eye opener and gives serious pause for thought. Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries, showing how a gang of buccaneers and gold-diggers planted the seed of the biggest empire in all history - and set the world on the road to modernity. This specific ISBN edition is currently not available. I listened to an audio version of this (superbly read by Sean Barrett) with great fascination. The statement is: "By the end of Britain's colonisation in 1830, at least two families of Aborigines were living on the Island. By (author) Niall Ferguson. “Without the spread of British rule around the world, it is hard to believe that the structures of liberal … From the Empire's humble origins of pirates and plantations to the Wars that bankrupted left it bankrupt, Ferguson brings the reader to all corners of the Empire, leaving no sun-lit stone untouched. Every one of his assertions could easily be countered, a fact he often admits. ... Niall Ferguson was born April 18, 1964, in Glasgow. ... Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations : Amazon Home Services Experienced pros Happiness Guarantee: IMDb Movies, TV … Niall Ferguson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, former Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and current senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and founder and managing director of advisory firm Greenmantle LLC. ... Benedetto Cotrugli – The Book of the Art of Trade: With Scholarly Essays from Niall Ferguson, Giovanni Favero, Mario Infelise, Tiziano Zanato and Vera Ribaudo. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published He is a Scottish historian. This book is also based on his view that the European liberal economic system is the highest achievement of modernity, and despite all the negative sides of the Empire, it at least allowed the rest of the developing world to become 'modern'. Su sistema impositivo basado en los impuestos internos era simple y eficaz.”, “En la práctica el dinero invertido en una colonia de iure como la India (o en una colonia en todo sentido, excepto el nombre como Egipto) era mucho más seguro que invertir en una colonia de facto como Argentina.”, “También explica por qué Gran Bretaña pudo superar a sus rivales ibéricos: precisamente porque, por ser una recién llegada a la carrera imperial, tuvo que dedicarse a colonizar los pocos prometedores páramos de Virginia y Nueva Inglaterra, antes que las ciudades de México y Perú, donde el saqueo estaba a la orden del día.”, “El historiador económico David Landes ha elaborado recientemente una lista de medidas que el gobierno ideal tendría que adoptar para el crecimiento y desarrollo:    1. aseguraría los derechos de la propiedad privada del mejor modo posible para alentar el ahorro y la inversión;  2. aseguraría los derechos de libertad individual… tanto contra los abusos de la tiranía como… del crimen y la corrupción;  3. haría cumplir el derecho contractual…  4. proporcionaría un gobierno estable… guiado por normas de dominio público;  5. proporcionaría un gobierno receptivo;  6. proporcionaría un gobierno honrado… [no] hipotecado a los favores y a la posición;  7. proporcionaría un gobierno moderado, eficiente, poco ambicioso… que rebajara los impuestos [y] redujera lo asignado al gobierno en el excedente social.”, “The reality, then, was that Indian nationalism was fuelled not by the impoverishment of the many but by the rejection of the privileged few.”, “aunque el liberalismo económico y político anglófono sigue siendo las más atractiva cultura del mundo, tiene el reto de hacer frente, como ha ocurrido desde la revolución iraní, a una seria amenaza procedente del fundamentalismo islámico.”, “Africa is in fact a more Christian continent than Europe.