political events and territorial conquests but paints a picture of what life was like under colonial rule, both for those who ruled and for those whose countries came under British authority. There has been a lively debate in recent years about whether empires generally are good or bad things, and the British Empire has been very much at the centre of that debate, with a number of voices  arguing that it was a kinder, gentler Empire than its rivals. This book speaks specifically to that debate, and also to a second and equally vigorous debate about whether anyone in Britain actually cared about the possession of an Empire.

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