Hatchet Job of the Day: Dominic Sandbrook on From the Ruins of Empire
No stranger to wielding the hatchet himself, Pankaj Mishra should be able to take Dominic Sandbrook’s Sunday Times review of his latest book FROM THE RUINS OF EMPIRE. In fact he should view it as a helpful warm-up before Niall Ferguson’s inevitable attack.
Like some pound-shop John Pilger, he talks again and again of the “pure plunder” of western imperialism, treating all European powers — the British, the Belgians, the French, the Dutch, the Russians — as though they were part of a satanic monolith. But you do not have to be an apologist for empire to bridle at Mishra’s total disregard for historical nuance.
All reviews – good and bad – here.
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