Bernard Porter: 7 books

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 world's ills today, including racism, exploitation and the problems of the Middle...

As well as presenting a lively narrative of events, Bernard Porter explores a number of broad analytical themes, challenging more conventional and popular interpretations.  He sees imperialism as a symptom not of Britain's strength in the world, but of her decline; and he argues that the empire itself both aggravated and obscured deep-seated malaise in the British economy.

The British Empire was an astonishingly complex and varied phenomenon, which should not be reduced to any of the simple generalisations or theories that are often taken to characterise it. 'Imperialism' took many forms, just one of which was formally governing – 'economic' and 'cultural' domination,...

Britain’s secret state exists to protect her from ‘enemies within’. It has always aroused controversy; on the one hand it is credited with preventing wars, revolutions and terrorism and on the other it is accused of subverting democratically elected governments and luring innocents to death....

This collection is organized around the concept of abduction, a logical operation introduced by Charles Sanders Peirce that explains how new ideas are formed in response to an uncertain future. Responding to this uncertain future with rigor and insight, each essay imagines new methods, concepts, and...

The United States that entered the twentieth century was vastly different from the nation that emerged from the Civil War. Industrialization, mass immigration, the growing presence of women in the work force, and the rapid advance of the cities had transformed American society. Broad in scope, The Gilded...

Dans un environnement en feu, l'Algérie semble étrangement calme, mais les orages s'approchent : chute du prix des hydrocarbures dans une économie très dépendante, baisse d'une rente qui assure la paix sociale, blocage du système politique, déstabilisation du Maghreb (Tunisie, Libye...) et...