4 ms·
Besides the sketches, she has written extensively about Indian rulers at the time (e.g. Ranjit Singh). If you found this interesting, you would love the Empire
by pm90 3mo ago
Besides the sketches, she has written extensively about Indian rulers at the time (e.g. Ranjit Singh). If you found this interesting, you would love the Empire Podcast... I believe they talk about Emily in the episode on Afghanistan (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/79-invading-afghanistan-the-return-of-a-king/id1639561921?i=1000627541600 https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/79-invading-afghanista...); Dalrymple's book on the subject (Return of a King, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_a_King https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_of_a_King) is also a masterfully well researched, delightful read.
- fillskills 3mo ago+1 to Empire Podcast. They have excellent series on a bunch of empires (well researched with references). Its one of those light, informative, non-boring podcasts: - The British Empire & The Raj - The Ottoman Empire - The Russian Empire - The United States as an Empire etc
- ebbi 3mo agoWilliam Dalrymple's books are great reads. Makes reading history enjoyable. Highly recommend all his books, particularly his most recent 'The Golden Road'
- sbmthakur 3mo agoReading that one now. I finished The Anarchy before that and it was a great intro to the 18th century and how it made the ground fertile for upcoming colonial period.
- pseudohadamard 3mo agoI read it and it changed my view of the colonisation of India, the way the book portrayed it the place was basically a slaughterhouse until the Pax Britannica was imposed. I'm not saying the British were perfect but it seems a lot better than being raped or hacked to pieces depending on your gender by the army of the despot in the state next to yours at a moment's notice.
- 21asdffdsa12 3mo agoGreat podcasts. Also gives you more of an idea why empires started existing. Basically keep the lights on at home at the price of somewhere else going dark. Empire is a life support mechanism for civilization, because when the exponential of life runs out on the linear of physics, social machinery is needed to be more than a riotous blob of ever-warring starving people. Basically a civilization scale heat-pump, similar to a central state, but over several countries. Which makes rebellion against the empire - a not so noble act, once things actually get scarce- decomplexification prevents the opening up of empire subsidized discovery of new energy sources. At the same time, empires can be unproductive, basically rentseeking and abandoning the purpose the heatpump originally was build for. Of course to the post colonialists, the existence of any heat pump is pure evil. And for the individual it is. But then again this ignores that the situation is evil. If the selfish drive to have all the offspring, maxes out the ressources, dissolves all the institutions and decomplexifies all things, a empire structure is needed to build a weather-satellite rocket from the food of to many peasants. Its horrifying, and was not necessary in recent memory due to the surplus productivity of capitalism. But if you decomplexify the beast that allows you to only have good situations - you restore the need to create the beast that handles only
- gadders 3mo agoI think it's a bit rude to claim India has gone dark. It seems like a pretty vibrant economy.
- 21asdffdsa12 3mo agoIts a electric lighting metaphor - on a world that abandons free trade and goes zero-sum. Take it literal to not deal with the given arguments, the reality depicted does not go away. PS: If india rises similar to china- the dependence on trade rises- otherwise - they would have outposts similar to the chinese in africa all of a sudden. The situations and dilemas depicted are universal, thus any country given the societal equipment (culture) can bump into them.
- GJim 3mo agoAll empires were not created equal!