Colonialism

NIGEL BIGGAR is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, where he directs the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life. He holds a B.A. in Modern History from Oxford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Christian Theology & Ethics from the University of Chicago. Before assuming his professorship at Oxford, he occupied chairs in at the University of Leeds and at Trinity College, Dublin. He was appointed C.B.E. in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.His most recent publications include What’s Wrong with Rights? (Oxford, 2020), Between Kin and Cosmopolis: An Ethic of the Nation (James Clarke/Wipf & Stock, 2014), and In Defence of War (Oxford, 2013).

‘A fascinating read, informative, surprising and written with panache and clarity’ The Times, Andrew Billen‘A thoughtful, compelling text’ Daily Telegraph, five-star review‘A salutary corrective’ The Times, Book of the Week‘Carries the intellectual force of a Javeline antitank missile. Colonialism is no apologia for empire… but calls for balance…Biggar acknowledges wickedness in our nation but his version of history calls us to accept the messiness and moral compromises inherent in liberalism’ Sunday Times‘Nigel Biggar has written … the book on the morality of the British Empire, a kind of Encyclopaedia Pacis Britannicae…. a thoughtful, compelling text’ Sunday Telegraph‘An important, timely and brave book…the first serious counter blast against the hysterical and ahistorical orthodoxy that has placed such a stranglehold on our public discourse on the British Empire, and as such will prove to be an indispensable handbook in the battles to come. It is also exceedingly well written and compellingly argued’ The Critic‘An important book, as well as a courageous one’ Literary Review‘Patiently argued and carefully balanced yet passionately committed to the production of a narrative which replaces denunciation and with evidences and understanding’ Quillette‘Biggar fearlessly goes where few other scholars now venture to tread: to defend the British empire against its increasingly vitriolic detractors … Those who wish to accuse the Victorians of genocide – who seek gulags in Kenya or Holocausts in the Raj – will probably not risk being ‘triggered’ by reading this book. But they really should … Biggar’s book simply cannot be ignored by anyone who wishes to hold a view on the subject’Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World