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The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, read by Sid Sagar.
The top five sunday times best seller.
One of Barack Obama's best books of 2019.
Longlisted for The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2019.
A Financial Times, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Wall Street Journal and Times book of the year.
In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish in his richest provinces a new administration run by English merchants who collected taxes through means of a ruthless private army – what we would now call an act of involuntary privatisation.
The East India Company’s founding charter authorised it to ‘wage war’ and it had always used violence to gain its ends. But the creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional international trading corporation dealing in silks and spices and became something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business. In less than four decades it had trained up a security force of around 200,000 men – twice the size of the British army – and had subdued an entire subcontinent, conquering first Bengal and finally, in 1803, the Mughal capital of Delhi itself. The Company’s reach stretched until almost all of India south of the Himalayas was effectively ruled from a boardroom in London.
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting book to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
Critic reviews
"Gloriously opulent...India is a sumptuous place. Telling its story properly demands lush language, not to mention sensitivity towards the country’s passionate complexity. Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India...A book of beauty." (Gerard DeGroot, The Times)
"Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India...A book of beauty." (Gerard DeGroot, The Times)
"An energetic pageturner that marches from the counting house on to the battlefield, exploding patriotic myths along the way...Dalrymple’s spirited, detailed telling will be reason enough for many readers to devour The Anarchy. But his more novel and arguably greater achievement lies in the way he places the company’s rise in the turbulent political landscape of late Mughal India." (Maya Jasanoff, Guardian)
What listeners say about The Anarchy
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- S
- 17-12-19
excellent narrative ...
poor narration, largely due to mangled pronunciation of non-English nouns. The text itself flows smoothly and is a riveting listen.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Noman Atta
- 02-07-23
Well written and narrated
I thoroughly enjoyed the content of this book. It was very well narrated, I would highly recommend for those who have interest in the history books f subcontinent.
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1 person found this helpful
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master story teller
I really enjoyed this audiobook. what a fascinating story. educational and so many characters saved from oblivion
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-01-21
Does what it says on the tin
I'd recommend this. Kept to the subject yet colourful and entertaining. I'd recommend Roger Crowleys 'Conquerors' as an accompaniment. It deals with Portugals equivalent ventures in India.
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- Amazon Customer
- 13-08-20
Gripped from the first page
Not just an important book but a story so well told. Totally gripping. Dalrymple at his best. If you are interested in British and Indian history this is a must.
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- Charles King-Tenison
- 01-10-20
Absolutely Fascinating
Tells the story of the East India company, from what feels like a well rounded viewpoint and emphasises plenty of different aspects of the period: political, social and economic
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- Anonymous User
- 06-05-21
Great book
Great book with warnings for the future. I enjoyed well read researched and entertaining
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- Mr J Smith
- 28-04-21
Narration became frustrating
Fascinating history but I felt the EIC was left behind instead to focus on India's civil wars. The narrator just sounds like he has a blocked nose for the entire book. There are obvious overdubs where he sounds much clearer. I couldn't listen beyond the second third, read the rest myself instead.
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- Amazon Customer
- 18-04-23
Narrator mispronounces lots of words
Poor William Dalrymple. His scholarly work is ruined by a dreadful narration which mispronounces loads of English words: Excruciating.
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- Flora J.
- 24-06-24
William Dalrymple hits it out of the park again!
A wonderful history of a time not so far from us but oh so misunderstood. The Anarchy is meticulously written to create an almost real life game of thrones.
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