Instructive account of corporate irresponsibility

The epilogue puts it all into perspective: The rise of the East India Company and its many abuses are highly relevant today, not only to experts of colonial history, but to anyone interested in questions of corporate responsibility and government oversight. Well written and very instructive, with an admirable attention to detail. At times, there is maybe too much erudite focus on various infightings and battles, as well as on concrete sums of money or valuables paid, lost or attained in an illegitimate manner. What remains fascinating - and unsettling - is the overall narrative.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Massive undertaking

For me, this was a great starting point to learn about the history of British colonialism in India. Teaches you a thing or two about the massive force that is greed.

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Naja

Es wird die Geschichte der Eroberung Indiens gut erzählt und der Autor hat gut Quellen Arbeit geleistet aber die Analyse erinner halt eher an einen zu gekiften College erst Semester als an einen ernsthaften Wissenschaftler.
Es werden klassische Postconolialen topoi wiederholt die vielleicht in den 80ern oder 90er radikal erscheinen wäre heute aber eher peinlich erscheinen
Insgesamt okay aber nicht umwerfend

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Great story, thrilling and informative.

A fascinating and well written account about corporate greed and power. This is a history is gripping both for its narration and writing but mainly for the absolut preposterous nature of the historical events. The events are well linked to modern issues of international and corporate law. I would strongly recommend to anyone trying to better understand the nature of modern Trans National Corporation's.

I was at times little unsure about what the sources for quotes were and the blend between historical analysis and story writing leans more heavily to the latter. This makes for a thrilling listen but I will have to purchase the hard copy to investigate if the footnotes can further inform me.

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3 Leute fanden das hilfreich

Too much flowery details on battles

Not my kind of prose, although seems to reflect the character of historic narrations. Too much of flowery descriptions of battles turns the reading tedious for passages. But, is a great story worth knowing.

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Way too detailed

This is way, way too lengthy. He presents so many details of battles and mogul feuds etc. While all these details are overwhelming the big picture the reader has to also navigate an enormous number of Indian names of local rulers, their sons and generals etc etc. It all gets so confusing and boring.

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Great for history enthusiasts

A fascinating, but sometimes lengthy and confusing history of the takeover of the Indian subcontinent by the private 'honorable' British East India company. I personally like the authors focus on both the perspective of the British as well as the Mughals, Mahratas and other political players in the region, using sources both from British and Indic eyewitnesses, as well as references to events in other parts of the British Empire, like the American war of independence and Napoleons invasion of Egypt, and how they influenced the actions of the company in India as well as the attitude of the British government to the company. It also establishes concepts that give continuity, like the fact that the word 'looting' was borrowed from an indian language and specially used for the behaviour of the company in India, which is recurring through the book. Yet is not simply a critique of capitalism in general but tries to put the actions of the company into the context of the time and elaborates also on the atrocities the peoples of the subcontinent inflicted on each other as well as the ability of especially the Mughals and Mahrathas to keep up with the European powers in pitched battles through being able to catch up with the Europeans in terms of firearms and strategy in the later 17th century. It does not try to push a political agenda, but presents the events from an historical perspective. In conclusion, I think The Anarchy is worth a read or listen for an audience that is rather interested in historical fact than having their political bias confirmed, because, while unregulated capitalism is undeniably something dangerous, the reality of the contest of India was way more nuanced than that, with the British being most of the time inferior to the empires in the region and often even making alliances with local rulers as subordinates, and the author clearly wants to put a focus on the fact that the outcome could also have been completely different, and with that in mind, despite the meandering of the narrative, I highly recommend it.

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A "great people" history of the EIC

This book is very well written and the reader does an excellent job. What I did not appreciate is that it follows the "great people" approach to history. It follows the conquest of Bengal step by step and I felt this level of detail was not warranted. I would have liked to hear more about the social and geopolitical background rather than the details of various battles.

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2 Leute fanden das hilfreich