Overview

A fascinating new history of the early days of the British Empire, told through the stories of the forgotten international powerhouses who aided, abetted and resisted the march of the British, by the award-winning historian David Veevers. 'An important book from an exciting voice' Sathnam Sanghera 'Veevers brilliantly retells the story we thought we knew...Important and thrilling' Dan Snow The story of the British Empire is a familiar one- Britain came, it saw, it conquered, forging a glorious world empire upon which the sun never set. In fact, far from being the tale of a single nation imposing its will upon the world, the expanding British Empire frequently found itself frustrated by the power and tenacious resistance of the Indigenous and non-European people it encountered. From gruelling wars in Ireland to the failure to curtail North African Corsair states, all the way to the collapse of commercial operations in East Asia, British attempts to create an imperial enterprise often ended in disaster and even defeat. In The Great Defiance, David Veevers looks beyond the myths of triumph and into the realities of British misadventures in the early days of Empire, meeting the extraordinary Indigenous and non-European people across the world who were the real forces to be reckoned with. From the Indian Emperors who contained the nefarious ambitions of the East India Company, to the West African Kings who resisted British demands and set the terms of the trade in enslaved people, to the Paramount Chiefs in America who fought to expunge English colonists from their homelands, this book retells the history of early Empire from the all too familiar story of conquest to one of empowering defiance and resistance.

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9781529109955

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Reviews

Veevers brilliantly retells the story we thought we knew...Important and thrilling * Dan Snow * Underpinned by a breathtaking amount of research...a rollicking read. * Suzannah Lipscomb *

Veevers brilliantly retells the story we thought we knew...Important and thrilling * Dan Snow *

Veevers brilliantly retells the story we thought we knew...Important and thrilling * Dan Snow * Underpinned by a breathtaking amount of research...a rollicking read. * Suzannah Lipscomb * An important book from an exciting voice * Sathnam Sanghera * A provocative book which will ruffle feathers...well argued, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written -- Andrew Mullholland * Military History Matters * Powerfully argues...how a colonial narrative of ""they came, they saw, they conquered"" erases centuries of indigenous (and enslaved) agency...This wide-ranging book will hopefully shift Britain's toxic public debate about empire * Irish Times * Lively, engaging...the breadth of his scope, spanning four continents over three centuries and drawing on a dazzling range of scholarship and primary sources, is novel...this is history for the real world now * BBC History Magazine * A deft weaving of global trade and local imperatives that is at once compelling, thought-provoking, and occasionally harrowing, The Great Defiance skillfully reorients our perspective on the received history of the earliest days of English trade and colonial ambitions and the emergent British Empire. * Professor Nandini Das *

"Veevers brilliantly retells the story we thought we knew...Important and thrilling * Dan Snow * Underpinned by a breathtaking amount of research...a rollicking read. * Suzannah Lipscomb * An important book from an exciting voice * Sathnam Sanghera * A provocative book which will ruffle feathers...well argued, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written -- Andrew Mullholland * Military History Matters * Powerfully argues...how a colonial narrative of ""they came, they saw, they conquered"" erases centuries of indigenous (and enslaved) agency...This wide-ranging book will hopefully shift Britain's toxic public debate about empire * Irish Times * Lively, engaging...the breadth of his scope, spanning four continents over three centuries and drawing on a dazzling range of scholarship and primary sources, is novel...this is history for the real world now * BBC History Magazine * A deft weaving of global trade and local imperatives that is at once compelling, thought-provoking, and occasionally harrowing, The Great Defiance skillfully reorients our perspective on the received history of the earliest days of English trade and colonial ambitions and the emergent British Empire. * Professor Nandini Das *"

Author Information

Dr David Veevers is an award-winning historian and Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Bangor, and was formerly a Leverhulme Fellow in the School of History at Queen Mary, University of London. His PhD is from the University of Kent, with work specialising in the British Empire and its role internationally. His acclaimed academic book, The Origins of the British Empire in Asia, 1600 - 1750, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.

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