Apr 23 2010
The Decline and Fall of the British Empire, 1781 – 1997 by Piers Brendon
The title of the most recent book I read, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (Vintage) by Piers Brendon, intrigued me because of its similarity in title to Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In fact, in the book’s introduction, Brendon acknowledges that his humble book echoes Gibbons’. Brendon does compare the administration and fate of the Roman Empire with that of the British Empire (in some cases his comparisons are a bit thin).
The book is generally organized in chapters according to the colonies. Several of the colonies have more chapters dedicated to them. For example, Brendon devotes chapters on India regarding the initial British incursion and expansion, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and its route to independence. I think this organization works best (rather than a chronological one) because the reader gets to focus on one colony or group of colonies at a time – it helps the reader to put events in the context of that country for a period of time.
