The Sunday Times Bestseller

A new evaluation of the West's colonial past.

After the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had reached the "End of History" – that the global dominance of liberal democracy had been secured forever.

However, now, the liberal West faces serious threats, not only external. Particularly in the Anglosphere, the "decolonization" movement erodes the West’s confidence, retelling the history of European and American colonial dominance as a series of racist, exploitative, and terrifyingly violent events.

Nigel Biggar tests this accusation, addressing critical questions in eight chapters: Was the British Empire primarily driven by greed and the desire for dominance? Should we speak of "colonialism and slavery" in the same sentence, as if they were synonymous? Was the Empire essentially racist? To what extent was it based on land theft? Did it involve genocide? Was it primarily driven by economic exploitation? Was colonial government a priori illegitimate? And, was the Empire essentially violent, and its violence consistently racist and terroristic?

Biggar makes it clear that, like any other long-standing state entity, the British Empire is involved in elements of injustice, sometimes terrifying. In some cases, it was culpably incompetent and presided over moments of horrifying tragedy.

Nevertheless, from the early 1800s, the Empire committed to abolishing the slave trade in the name of a Christian belief in the fundamental equality of all people. It suppressed chronic interstate warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities of the global market, mitigated the impacts of inevitable modernization, enshrined the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free press, and expended resources to defeat the murderously racist Nazi and Japanese empires in the Second World War.

As encyclopedic in historical scope and in-depth analytical, Colonialism offers a moral inquiry into the colonial past, questioning harmful illusions and thus helping to renew faith in the West’s future.

Pages: 480, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm