The Chaos of Empire: The British Raj and the Conquest of India

A sweeping history of the conquest of India by the British, from the first faltering trading stations to the marbled imperial cities, emphasizing the violence of colonial rule and its chaotic inheritance

The popular image of the British Raj—an era of efficient but officious governors, sycophantic local functionaries, doting amahs, blisteringly hot days and torrid nights—chronicled by Forster and Kipling is glamorous and nostalgic, but entirely fictitious. In this dramatic revisionist histor...