The Modern Scholar

World's First Superpower: The Rise of the British Empire, 1497 to 1901

By: Professor Denis Judd

Narrated by: Denis Judd

This course will examine the growth and development of the largest empire in world history - the British Empire - beginning with the late 15th century Tudor dynasty in England and ending with the death of the Queen-Empress Victoria in 1901.

By the beginning of the 20th century, there were very few countries or people who had not been affected, one way or another, by the impact of the British. The Empire itself by then covered over a quarter of the world's land surface, the Royal Navy dominated the oceans, and one in every four human beings lived under British rule.

Yet despite all of this global power and the emergence of Britain by the beginning of the nineteenth century as the world's first true superpower, the British Empire had very humble, small-scale origins.

In the course, we shall proceed chronologically, but also look more closely at particular themes and countries. The course will not provide a fully comprehensive survey, an enormous task anyway; rather, we shall seek to uncover and understand the essential historical truths about this mightiest of empires.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2004 Denis Judd (P)2004 Recorded Books

Despite the stylish shortcomings

Despite the stylish shortcomings, this set of lectures on the British History is highly digestible and to the point, I like the way Judd summerised the lecture into point form before every lecture.

Flawless

So nice to listen to a course that does not have an ideological agenda.
Judd is smart and articulate.

British Empire a force for good?

Despite that Judd realizes that the purpose of empire (any empire) is to transfer the wealth from the colonies and dependent peoples into the pockets of the ruling classes of the homeland, he declares that overall the empire did more good than bad to the people under British control.
This is an opinion one will not hear from an Indian, African, Chinese or any other historian whose country found itself on the receiving end of British Imperial doing good. I wonder why?
Judd should listen to his own teaching, forget that he is British and hence has to vindicate British history, and call the empire what it was; a racist and cruel tool for exploitation and domination. (That's what he teaches anyway.)