Contradictory Legacies: Complexity of the British Empire

Exploring the profound contradictions and complexities of the British Empire, this chapter challenges the balance sheet view of history that attempts to weigh its positive and negative aspects. The speaker discusses how the empire's legacies resulted in both democracy and instability, environmental destruction and the birth of the environmental movement, and the spread of free press along with press censorship. They emphasize the need to recognize that opposite things can be true at the same time and to engage in a more nuanced conversation about the legacy of empire.