4.8 /10 1 Votes
Country United States Subject The United Kingdom Publication date April 2007 Originally published April 2007 Page count 192 Media type Hardcover | 2.4/5 Goodreads Language English Publisher Quirk Books Pages 192 OCLC 86168689 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World is a book written by Steven A. Grasse, the chief executive officer of Philadelphia marketing agency Gyro. It was first published in April 2007 by Quirk Books. In the work the author argues that many of the world's problems were caused by the British Empire and also criticises British culture.
Contents
Synopsis
The book argues that the British Empire was evil, and responsible for the Irish famine, the atrocities committed by the Black and Tans during the Irish War of Independence, Racism, the Scramble for Africa, the Iraq War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Durand Line and the Revengs of the Afghan Royal Family and their Rare Earth Elements, global warming, world poverty, the Great Plague, Islamofascism, the 19th century First and Second Opium Wars with China, the First World War and the Vietnam War. Other events the book places blame on the British Empire for include the Second World War, the fathering of the United States and the drug trade. The book argues that all of these incidents had a negative impact on the world.
Other arguments made in the book involve the popularity of homosexuality among the British nobility that the King James Bible was a deliberate act of heresy, and that the Piltdown Man hoax was a deliberate attempt by British academia to prove that they were a superior race.
Reception
Jonah Bloom of Advertising Age said that he believed "very few would take this book too seriously". Michael Henderson, writing for the British Daily Telegraph, agreed that the British had on occasion made matters worse in Ireland and Africa, but considered that the United Kingdom had given much to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and the age of Romanticism. Overall, he opined that the book was silly, and that it should be treated with laughter.
The New Statesman and Publishers Weekly both reviewed the work, with the latter stating that it was a "neat premise" but that "The more outrageous, hypocritical, and simply incorrect his allegations become, the better the reader should understand how it feels to be bombarded with ill-informed criticism on behalf of one's nation. But to pull it off requires a light touch to soften the abuse. Instead, Grasse tramples humourlessly through the material, lacing it with his own moral and political dogma."