It must be said that the previous reviewer seems to have an issue with the fact that the author fails to adequately slam the "evil imperialists" of the British Empire. I suspect that the last line of his review contains all that we need to know. This is an enormously ambitious topic to cover in a single volume and purports to be merely an introduction to some, not all, of the main debates/controversies related to the continuing discussion of the motives, methods, and effects of British imperialism. The author is careful not to fall into the old trap of reading our modern values back into history and is certainly no fan of post-colonial theory, which, is all the rage on US campuses. However, while he may not be overtly 'PC', neither is he a frothing apologist of empire. Rather, he presents the major arguments of both sides as they have developed and as they stand at the present. Of course he injects something of his own views but certainly there is nothing there to offend unless one has a prior viewpoint that must be pandered to. American readers should be aware that the academics cited throughout are overwhelmingly British or Indian, and all the greats are there from MacKenzie and Porter to Said and Hopkins. A good start to a fascinating and very involved subject.

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