imperialism
Nostalgia for old Ceylon: lush foliage and tender feelings from Romesh Gunesekera
Empires are born to die; that’s one source of their strange allure. An untenable form of society judders, in technicolor…
Bloodbath at Baisakhi: the centenary of the Amritsar massacre
On 10 April 1919, the peppery governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O’Dwyer, ordered the immediate arrest of two leaders…
The short step from good manners to lofty imperialism
In the gap between what we feel ourselves to be and what we imagine we might in different circumstances become,…
The making of modern India
The sacrifices made by India on the Allies’ behalf in the second world war would profoundly affect the country’s future for better or worse, says Philip Hensher
1956: the year of living dangerously
The book of the year has long been a favoured genre in popular history, and is a commonplace today. While…
All you’ll ever need to know about the history of England in one volume
Here is a stupendous achievement: a narrative history of England which is both thorough and arresting. Very few writers could…
Norman Stone: From Syria to Iraq, the mess of the first world war is with us still
So many of the world’s troubles, even today, can be traced back to the empire-builders of 1914 – and the peace-makers of 1919
