For more than a century after c1840 the british empire formed the core of a larger british world system managed from london this book is a study of the rise fortunes and fall of that system the british world system was not a structure of global hege mony holding in thrall the non western world except in particular. The empire project the rise and fall of the british world system 1830 1970 darwin john 9780521302081 europe amazon canada cdn 4729 list price cdn 7095. John darwin the empire project the rise and fall of the british world system 1830 1970 chia lin huang european history quarterly 2015 45 3 john darwin the empire project the rise and fall of the british world system 1830 1970 show all authors chia lin huang chia lin huang see all articles by this author search google scholar . This is a comprehensive history of the british empire from 1830 until 1970 it takes the point of view of the empire rather than britain itself as the focal unit and moves through the various periods of imperial history from mid 19th century free trading to the scramble for africa to the boer war to wwi to the interwar period to wwii and postwar events. John darwins the empire project the rise and fall of the british world system 1830 1970 is surely now the finest and will be the most influential general survey of british imperial history independent a hugely insightful book that questions lazy notions of hegemonic power its a brilliant marriage of the scholarly to the readerly