The Rise and Fall of the British Empire

By: Patrick N. Allitt, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Patrick N. Allitt

Length: 18 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

What were the forces that thrust the British Empire to its extraordinary position of greatness and then just as powerfully drove it into decline? And why is nearly every nation on earth, in one way or another, the consequence of the British Empire?

In these 36 lectures, Professor Allitt leads you through four centuries of British power, innovation, influence, and, ultimately, diminishment - four profound centuries that literally remade the world and bequeathed the complex global legacy that continues to shape your everyday life. This is a remarkable lecture series; one that will give you fresh insights into world history in a wide range of areas - political, economic, technological, social, and more. And it will also give you a comprehensive overview you won't find offered anywhere else - a context into which you can integrate new knowledge about this country, as well as understand the background of current events in so many other countries that were once part of Britain's empire, from Ireland to China, and in Africa and the Caribbean. Indeed, it seems fair to say that one cannot truly understand the most important aspects of world history without a firm grasp of the history of the British Empire. In giving you that grasp, these lectures draw on a vast range of critical events, riveting personalities, revealing anecdotes, and eloquent quotations.

Compelling, comprehensive, and astonishing in the force of its narrative power, each lecture will give you a refreshing new understanding of what made the British Empire both great in its achievements and vulnerable to its eventual downfall.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2009 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2009 The Great Courses

Wonderful

as always Prof. Allitt does a really good job. he tried to present a very balanced view of British Empire good and bad I appreciate that. At times his Britishness came out, But I forgive him, deep down it's hard to separate who you are and your feelings from what you are presenting. That aside the lecturer is an excellent teacher, I loved that he presented the material in chronological order and he left no stone unturned in terms of the various ways the Empire affected all it's colonies. very good job.

Very enjoyable

Not only informative, but very entertaining with accent and language usage. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Great but not what I expected

The lectures are exceptionally well performed and very informative. I deeply enjoy the fact than instead of taking a stance of the empire being strictly good or bad, it takes a neutral approach that shows both the benefits the British brought and the atrocities they committed.

My only gripe is the lack of British history. I was hoping for a history of The UK and both why and how the empire was created and sustained. It instead focuses entirely on the colonies and how they were run. I learned more about India, Canada and Australia than the U.K. during these lectures. It shows a lot about what the empire was, but very little about the people who ran it in there far off islands.

Great course

Fantastic journey through the British history. Last chapter is the best summary I ever heard

Exceeded My Expectations

After listening to Professor Allitt's lectures in the "History of the United States" series I didn't have alot of expectations for this course. He sounded personable and knowledable and I thought he did a good job of showing how the country had transformed over the last century but I didn't think he did specific events justice and it was hard to get into his treaching style in general. So going into this course I thought I'd be happy if he at least covered the basic events and didn't expect much else.

Shame on me.

This was a very well-done course and really helped me understand the British Empire and its history. He had me spellbound at certain times (such as lectures 23---World War I, 25---Irish independence, and 28---World War II) and captured my attention throughout. I looked forward to the times during my day when I could listen to this course and tried sneaking it in when I could. I can't think of a better compliment.

This course provided great historical narrative covering the history of the British colonial empire from the exploration days of the 1500s to the disintegration of the empire in the mid 1900s (including histories of most of the countries to 2008); Areas of focus include: o American colonies (starting in Virginia) o West Indies (Caribbean islands) o India o Canada o Australia o New Zealand o Africa (east, south, and west) o Hong Kong, China o Ireland (and to a lesser extent Scotland) o Middle East (Egypt, Trans-Jordan, Palestine, Iraq)

Another stroke of brilliance from the professor: he would often read first hand written accounts from people who experienced specific events or were providing descriptions of the times. He does a marvelous job selecting ones that truly paint a picture of the event/what people felt about the event/time so well that you can’t help but feel placed there yourself. I can see how some people would react to the high frequency with "Another reading? Really? Again??" but he always chose one that captured the essence of the time or the event being disucssed. Kudos.

The only minuses I could find were the way he started and ended his lectures.

He would start off each lecture by providing a preview of a major historical event or time period that he was going to discuss in more detail later in the lecture. But he wouldn’t frame it as such which resulted in me thinking that was the one and only time he’d describe something and I was left wondering why he didn’t provide more meat to the event and why he was moving to the next item so fast. If he would’ve explained it was a preview and he would get into further detail later in the lecture then some of the relation of the events wouldn’t feel so disjointed. This approach wouldn’t leave any real drama relating to the result of the event to hold your attention (such as which side would win a major battle) so it was like you had all the answers in a minute and all that was left was repeating it by providing details.

Addiiotnally, he would often conclude his lectures in a somewhat abrupt manner: there wasn’t much summation of the key points of the lecture or a preview of what the next lecture had in store so there were times when the professor would make a point and suddenly there’d be applause to mark the end of the lecture without any warning that it was winding down! This kept me on my toes, never quite knowing for sure if, after he’d made a point, I’d then hear applause marking the end of the lecture!

All in all though I highly recommend this course for anyone with an interest in British history and its worldwide empire. Since this was such a well-done history course I would even recommend it to anyone with an interest in ANY type of history from the 1500s to 2008.

Excellent

If you could sum up The Rise and Fall of the British Empire in three words, what would they be?

Flowing, well-structured, enjoyable voice

Any additional comments?

He goes to great lengths to appear impartial. This can get frustrating over time because tidbits of positivity are sprinkled liberally through otherwise grave episodes in history. A good example is his anecdote about how 'house slaves' were treated more favourably then 'field slaves' on the plantations. Fine, maybe so, but I'd rather hear more about the awfulness of slavery, and for him to outright say that it was awful. Also, he cites Niall Ferguson and other celebrants of empire quite regularly. Would be good to hear some references to post-colonial historians. Overall though, a fantastic series.

Charming, thoughtful, balanced

Prof. Allitt does his normal wonderful job of presenting a balanced view of a difficult topic - the British Empire. He did a deft job of showing the bad along with the good, but kept the listener firmly rooted in how events were viewed at the time, a hard thing to do when talking about slavery, colonization, and racial views we would find abhorrent now. His use of primary sources was insightful but not overly lengthy.

Especially loved the lecture on cricket!

Great overview of the British Empire

This is one of the best courses I've finished. A lot less woke than other sources, but does spend a fair amount of time on the negatives. Worth a credit.

Best Thing Ever!!!!!!!

This is so Amazing I will never have another experience this fantastic! You haven't lived until you hear this!!!!!!!!!

Educational and Entertaining

The speaker was knowledgeable, interesting and provided some great insight into a part of not only British history but world history that I had never appreciate it before. it was interesting to learn about parts of American history from a British perspective and puts a whole new light on how our nation came around.