The Anarchy

The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

By: William Dalrymple

Narrated by: Sid Sagar

Bloomsbury presents The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, read by Sid Sagar.

THE TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019
THE TIMES HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR
FINALIST FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2020
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

‘Dalrymple is a superb historian with a visceral understanding of India … A book of beauty’ – Gerard DeGroot, The Times

In August 1765 the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and forced him to establish a new administration in his richest provinces. Run by English merchants who collected taxes using a ruthless private army, this new regime saw the East India Company transform itself from an international trading corporation into something much more unusual: an aggressive colonial power in the guise of a multinational business.

William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.

©2019 William Dalrymple (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Dalrymple Does It Again

Wonderfully written book wonderfully narrated. Could not stop listening. Much food for thought here comparing and contrasting to today...

The modern equivalent of these sums...

if i ever have to hear that phrase again... give us the rough parameters of conversion rates over this period once at the beginning rather than repeating it so tediously.

won’t please a historian or historical sociologist but a good listen with some colorful details.

Flawed

There are 3-4 fabulous chapters that are insightful, informative and analytical, Unfortunately the rest are just chronicles of battles and palace intrigue. I came away with no sense of how the company affected economic and social life in India; sense of what the company’s remittances meant to the Crown; no sense of whether it’s ultimate domination of the subcontinent sowed the seed of anti-colonialism. Also, I found gratuitos and unhelpful the endless descriptions of torture, dismemberment, rape, flailing and butchery.

Extraordinary.

What a history! Clearly written, well narrated, it gives ably the context of the times and cultures - the why and to who of the “what actually happened”. A splendid achievement. It also made me fall in love with Indian history and culture, much of which was badly damaged by the Company.

Informative yet slow

Unless you are truly researching the topic, though informative, a slow audio book to finish.

Maybe a better book to read.

narrator needs to change

the mispronounced names are very very irritating. the content is fabulous, it's dalrymple after all and his writings and storytelling are superb. if you have an Indian origin guy narrating, one would presume that it's for the sake of pronouncing the Indian names correctly.if that's not the case then get any other narrator for the book. but if you have an Indian origin narrator and he garbles them so badly one would wonder why he is chosen at all. cannot pronounce city names correctly, let alone names of characters weather it be maratha ,Mughal or south indian, calls the ganga as ganja(bald man). makes for a very jarring listening experience. I have bought the book and I will read it rather than torture myself to this narration. I also had to reduce the speed to 90% to understand the content. and this is from a guy who usually listens to content at 120% speed. superb book and content but please have a different narrator

Excellent historical insight

Well researched and engaging. I liked that the narrator was able to pronounce Indian, English, and French names so well.

Great story by great storyteller

Great book written about a topic that is incredibly interesting and thought-provoking. If you have any interest at all of this subject, then I highly recommend giving this a try

Excellent history of how the East India Co conquered India

This was well read and well written. A very good history. It is a salutary tale of corporate overage, and the dangers of a badly divided country.

informative but overly reflective

the book was useful to learn about the early history of the EIC and its major conquests that led to it controlling most of India before that was taken over by the British crown. however, it was kind of annoying that almost every 5 minutes it repeated the conclusion "a large corporation did x,y,z which was unheard of before and after". it felt somewhat preachy from start to end.

this book was not as entertaining or engaging as other historical books on Euro-Asian politics of that time like "the great game" (which was an excellent book), and was dry at times. however it filled in a huge gap in my understanding of how the British came to control India, and introduced me to a lot of topics that I might read up on separately now.