Heroes & Villains of the British Empire: Their Lives & Legends

An analysis of the builders of the British Empire, how they were represented in popular culture of the day, and how that vision has changed over time.

From the sixteenth until the twentieth century, British power and influence gradually expanded to cover one quarter of the world's surface. The common saying was that "the sun never sets on the British Empire." What began as a largely entrepreneurial enterprise in the early modern period, with privately run joint stock trading companies such ...