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The British Empire is often misunderstood. Judgments of it differ widely - from broadly adulatory - a great enterprise - spreading civilization through the world; to the blame that is often put on it for most of the worlds ills today - including racism - exploitation and the problems of the Middle East. In this provocative book - Bernard Porter argues that many of these judgments arise from some fundamental misreadings of the nature - causes and effects of British imperialism - which was a more complex - ambivalent and in some ways accidental phenomenon than it is often taken to be. Drawing on his fifty years experience of research and writing on the subject - Porter aims to clear away many of the misconceptions that surround the story of the British Empires rise - governance and fall; and to point some ways to a fairer (though not necessarily more favourable) assessment of it. He addresses the connections of imperialism with capitalism - racism and British domestic culture - and ends with some reflections on the modern repercussions of both the Empire itself - and the myths which have sprung up around it....