Empire-building and empire-builders

by Edward Ingram

These twelve studies of empire-building and empire-builders range widely across the dream world that was the British Empire from the late eighteenth century to the Second World War. Nothing in the British Empire was as it seemed: victories were defeats, defeats were victories, and the use of power was disguised by the veneer of righteousness. The essays reinterpret the work of imperial heroes such as Marquis Wellesley, his more famous younger brother the Duke of Wellington, and Wellington's rival in the pantheon, Lord Nelson; of eminent historians such as A.J.P. Taylor; and of fictional heroines such as Rudyard Kipling's Mrs Hauksbee and George Orwell's Elizabeth Lackersteen. They illustrate the variety of techniques used by British empire-builders and the variety of explanations they gave to account for their behaviour. And they show that to the British image and self-image mattered as much as achievement. The presentation of the achievement was often more important than the achieveme