Why read Empire, Incorporated?

Book cover of Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism

Book description

"[A] landmark book...[a] bold reframing of the history of the British Empire."
-Caroline Elkins, Foreign Affairs

An award-winning historian places the corporation-more than the Crown-at the heart of British colonialism, arguing that companies built and governed global empire, raising questions about public and private power that were just as troubling…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Empire, Incorporated as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Christian R. Burset

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High-school history classes usually tell students that empires expanded at least partly because of their proponents’ greed. But who, exactly, was trying to get paid, and how?

Empire, Incorporated tells the story of Britain’s imperial expansion by focusing on the corporations that drove it.

If you’re on the fence about reading this book, flip to the “Index of Companies, Corporations, and Societies” at the back: the sheer number of entries makes it clear that we can’t understand Britain’s empire by focusing on governments alone. Imperial rule was much more complicated than that.

From Christian's list on The best recent books on the rise of the British Empire.