Colonialism: Moral Reckoning by Nigel Biggar - 9780008511630

Colonialism: Moral Reckoning
By (author) Nigel Biggar

Product details
Format Hardback | 480 pages
Dimensions 159 x 240 x 43mm | 780g
Publication date 02 May 2023
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint William Collins
Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
Language English
ISBN10 0008511632
ISBN13 9780008511630

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.