Colonialism

A Moral Reckoning

By: Nigel Biggar

Narrated by: Matt Bates

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.

Nevertheless, from the early 1800s the Empire was committed to abolishing the slave trade in the name of a Christian conviction of the basic equality of all human beings. It ended endemic inter-tribal warfare, opened local economies to the opportunities of global trade, moderated the impact of inescapable modernisation, established the rule of law and liberal institutions such as a free press, and spent itself in defeating the murderously racist Nazi and Japanese empires in the Second World War.

As encyclopaedic in historical breadth as it is penetrating in analytical depth, Colonialism offers a moral inquest into the colonial past, forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to rejuvenate faith in the West’s future.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Nigel Biggar (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

‘A fascinating read, informative, surprising and written with panache and clarity’ The Times, Andrew Billen

‘A thoughtful, compelling text’ Daily Telegraph, five-star review

‘A salutary corrective’ The Times, Book of the Week

‘Carries the intellectual force of a Javeline antitank missile. Colonialism is no apologia for empire… but calls for balance…Biggar acknowledges wickedness in our nation but his version of history calls us to accept the messiness and moral compromises inherent in liberalism’ Sunday Times

‘Nigel Biggar has written … the book on the morality of the British Empire, a kind of Encyclopaedia Pacis Britannicae…. a thoughtful, compelling text’ Sunday Telegraph

‘An important, timely and brave book…the first serious counter blast against the hysterical and ahistorical orthodoxy that has placed such a stranglehold on our public discourse on the British Empire, and as such will prove to be an indispensable handbook in the battles to come. It is also exceedingly well written and compellingly argued’ The Critic

‘An important book, as well as a courageous one’ Literary Review

‘Patiently argued and carefully balanced yet passionately committed to the production of a narrative which replaces denunciation and with evidences and understanding’ Quillette

‘Biggar fearlessly goes where few other scholars now venture to tread: to defend the British empire against its increasingly vitriolic detractors … Those who wish to accuse the Victorians of genocide – who seek gulags in Kenya or Holocausts in the Raj – will probably not risk being ‘triggered’ by reading this book. But they really should … Biggar’s book simply cannot be ignored by anyone who wishes to hold a view on the subject’
Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

Excellent response by Dr Biggars to those peddling ideology with scant evidence

Really enjoyed this. Excellent academic rigour, solid citations. I’m doubtful that Dr. Biggar’s detractors will have the guts to respond in any detailed manner, but he makes his case quite well.

Brilliant, engrossing, nuanced, leaves you with a feeling of restrained pride.

Highly recommended. Yet another fine work with which the modern Westerner may inoculate themselves from the unrelenting poison streaming out of modern academia.

Takes on Political Opinion with Historical Fact

Professor Biggar looks at the good and the bad of the British Empire. He does not compare it to an imagined Utopia, but to actual governments. About time someone bucked the popular trends and health with reality. Read this book.

A thoughtful review of recent indictment of colonial powers

I like how the author picks what is often regarded as the worst acts of GBR as a colonial power and gives depth and background to each situation. He does this without justifying actions of key stakeholders (usually it is more of contextualization) or giving over simplified explanation of complex situations. Highly recommend.

a well structured rebuke of anti-colonialism

very well written, narrator maintains his professionalism and the author refrains from using any sort of emotional or ideological arguments. very fact-based, I deal for a logical or rational-minded individual. The book is also fair- acknowledging at times the unfortunate reality of colonialism. this is one that's worth reading again to soak in all of the useful arguments

Outstanding Report on one of the greatest empires ever.

Most anti-colonialists live in. world of “presentism”, judging the past by today’s values. By this metric nobody would pass muster; not Gandhi or Martin Luther King or even Jesus Christ. The White man did not invent the institution of slavery, he abolished it. Give credit where it is due. I am an Indian, a country that was ruled by the British for over two hundred years. After independence in 1947, we collectively decided to get over the past and moved ahead. As a consequence, today three of my countrymen run three of the largest companies in the world; Microsoft, Google ad IBM The present Prime Minister of Britain is also of Indian origin. Compared to any other colonial power such as Spain and Portugal and others Britain stands alone in how much they gave back Please stop beating up on them

Mark Castelino

A debunking and discrediting of Marxist history

This book surgically dismantled the narratives surrounding post-colonial history and provides a recount of history with its faults. But provides great sentiment for our society to be proud of.

Truth and Self-Reconciliation

The anti colonial narrative is not true. While many evils occurred over the course of Empire, this was nothing distinctly different from what has occurred everywhere and in all times when fallen humanity exercises it’s will, as individuals, groups, institutions, and governments. A great many goods also occurred, and most often, the agents of Empire were actively seeking the good of the imperial subjects, usually in the ways the anti colonialists say they should have. Truly a must-read for the 21st Century.

Great Scholarship!

An important corrective to Marxist based narcissistic thinking and denial of historical evidence. A must read.

Never under- value the importance of correct pronunciation.

The reader could have taken the time to check many of the pronunciations, African names in particular were victims of this neglect.