A magisterial history of the foundation of the British Empire, and the forgotten story of native resistance.

As the call for a new understanding of our national history gets louder, this book turns the received imperial story of Britain on its head. Britain's Empire recounts the long overlooked narrative of the resisters, revolutionaries and revolters who stood up to the might of the Empire. Richard Gott recounts the Britain's misdeeds from the beginning of the eighteenth century to the Indian Mutiny, spanning the globe from Ireland to Australia, telling a story of almost continuous colonialist violence. Recounting events from the perspective of the colonized, Gott unearths the all-but-forgotten stories excluded from mainstream British histories.

"Vivid and startling ... Gott's achievement is to show, as no historian has done before, that violence was a central, constant and ubiquitous part of the making and keeping of the British Empire" - Guardian

"His message is stark but Gott is never shrill. He writes as a scholar, not an accuser." - Red Pepper

"A tour de force." - History Today

"A welcome, even necessary, corrective." - the Independent

"Stimulating, inspirational and much needed." - Morning Star

"Pungent and provocative ... a rich compendium of revolt" - Scotland on Sunday