Then there will be those who are outraged, stoked up by the book’s combative style and its direct challenge to an established historic outlook. Despite the impression of imperial eccentricity conjured by his name, Moon was a sober observer of the British dominion in India. He thought it had done some good and some bad things, and that its eventual demise was long overdue. Dismissed by the British government for being too sympathetic toward Indian nationalists, he later spent 14 years holding important positions within the government of independent India at the invitation of its new rulers. Despite having many reasons to do so, they did not hate British people such as Moon anywhere near so much as Veevers seems to. Even the bloody local warfare that blighted West Africa is blamed on European merchants providing its inhabitants with modern firearms, thus creating “the conditions for mass violence”, rather than on those who made the decision to go to war or pull the triggers. Of all the British villains in Veevers’ account, there is no one whose inclusion is more surprising than that of Sir Penderel Moon — a mild-mannered colonial civil servant and historian. His magnum opus, The British Conquest and Dominion of India (1989), was devoured by Veevers as an undergraduate. Now that he has achieved intellectual enlightenment, he condemns Moon for committing “a gross erasure of the people of India from his story”, relying on a quotation which does not reflect what Moon actually wrote. Sir Penderel was not alone in this regard. The history of ‘indigenous and non-European peoples’, Veevers tells us, has hitherto been ‘determined almost entirely by British perspectives and actions’. Not so, apparently, for his own book – which sets itself the task of ‘rewriting those Anglocentric histories of the early modern period’ which were ‘distorted by generations of colonial authors’.

Non-Western polities are invariably described as powerful and sophisticated, which rather raises the question of why so many of them were conquered by a few thousand people from a pathetic little island. The role of local collaborators, indispensable to the establishment and maintenance of imperial rule, is notably absent. It would have spoiled the narrative. For nine long years from 1593 Ireland was ravaged by one of the largest and most brutal wars that Europe had seen for centuries. Tens of thousands of soldiers died from fighting and disease, while even more civilians died from famines instigated by English attempts to starve the population into submission. As the Elizabethan state poured money and men into Ireland, it seemed to many that the country could never be subdued. As veteran officer Nicholas Dawtry wrote in 1597, a “conquered nation” is “evermore malicious unto those that conquered them, and so will be until the world’s end”’.A deft weaving of global trade and local imperatives that is at once compelling, thought-provoking, and occasionally harrowing, The Great Defiance skillfully reorients our perspective on the received history of the earliest days of English trade and colonial ambitions and the emergent British Empire. Professor Nandini Das Lively, engaging...the breadth of his scope, spanning four continents over three centuries and drawing on a dazzling range of scholarship and primary sources, is novel...this is history for the real world now BBC History Magazine Veevers admirably tries to render Irish names in their own language, but his linguistic hybrid only serves to highlight elided complexity. “Hugh Ó Néill” was Hugh O’Neill in English and Aodh Ó Néill in Irish, and the great earl’s shifts between those identities were key to his political career. Tyrone’s rebellion is cast as an attempt to “rid his country of every shred of English influence”, but even many contemporaries would have suggested that O’Neill’s conversion to “faith and fatherland” was about ruthless self-interest rather than “resistance”.

Laugh Your Way Through History with 'The Great Defiance' by David Veevers - A Comedy of Errors, Liberal Guilt, and Historical Hilarity!" Veevers, D.& Pettigrew, W., 2018, The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c.1550 - 1750. Veevers, D. & Pettigrew, W. (eds.). Brill, Vol. 16. p. 1-42 42 p. But it's Veevers' extreme self-hating liberalism that truly steals the show. He goes above and beyond to apologize for Britain's past, as if he personally carried out every misdeed himself. He's like a guilt-ridden puppy, wagging his tail in perpetual remorse for historical actions that he had absolutely no control over. It's a hilarious sight to behold, as Veevers contorts himself into a pretzel of guilt, trying to outdo every other liberal in the race to win the title of "Most Guilt-Ridden Human Ever." It is also the case that a lot of these engagements are small-scale and little-covered in mainstream military history. For that, they will make interesting, colourful, and often surprising reading for those with a broad interest in the subject. Making Empire: Ireland, Imperialism and the Early Modern World By Jane Ohlmeyer (Oxford University Press, November 2023). Based on her landmark 2021 Ford lectures at Oxford, Ohlmeyer’s forthcoming book will re-examine Ireland’s relationship with imperialism both as a colony and as an active part of empire. Christopher Kissane

David is Lecturer in Early Modern History. He read History at the University of Kent, where he also completed his MA and PhD in 2015. His thesis was a study of the English East India Company in South Asia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, exploring in particular the way in which informal social networks shaped the formation of an early modern colonial state. Furthermore, unless your historic taste is literally confined to military matters, it is undeniably interesting. As military history enthusiasts, we are accustomed to that focus and there is nothing wrong with that in itself. But the broader causality of military conflict and indeed the tides of history are relevant. However provocative Veevers’ analysis is, it is well argued, thoroughly researched, and engagingly written. Veevers' writing style is a delight to behold. Each sentence is carefully crafted, effortlessly blending eloquence with accessibility. The prose carries a certain cadence, drawing readers deeper into the narrative and allowing them to visualize the grandeur and significance of historical events. Whether describing decisive battles or intimate interactions, Veevers' words evoke emotions and create a powerful connection between the reader and the subject matter. It is useful to contrast the two authors. Moon spoke several Indian languages well enough to administer justice in the vernacular as a district officer in the Punjab, a skill required of all officers of the Indian Civil Service. For all Veevers’ claims of “reach[ing] beyond a British perspective to understand the histories and actions of the people who encountered them”, of the 500-odd titles in his bibliography, all but five are written in English. Not a single one is written in a non-European language.

Published "Inhabitants of the Universe": Global Families, Kinship Networks and the Formation of the Early Modern Colonial State in Asia These are ingredients in the mix though, rather than the central concern of Veevers. His is a multifaceted analysis, equally interested in the commercial, political, and social drivers of the events he describes. This makes for a rounder, perhaps more thoughtful overview than a strictly military history would provide. Published The Contested-State: Political Authority and the Decentred Foundations of the Early Modern Colonial State in Asia Join us for this thought-provoking journey into one of the most critical periods in global history, offering a comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics that ultimately brought World War II to its dramatic conclusion. Veevers, D., 2018, The Corporation as a Protagonist in Global History, c.1550-1750. Veevers, D. & Pettigrew, W. (eds.). Brill, Vol. 16. p. 187-210 13 p.

In this captivating episode of Explaining History, we delve into the profound historical moments leading to the end of World War II with our special guest, acclaimed writer and historian, Evan Thomas. Veevers announces his bête noire in the introduction: it is those ‘bestselling books that crowd the shelves of history sections today, proclaiming how “Britain Made the Modern World”. He repeats this in the conclusion, excoriating those ‘histories that grace bookshops proclaiming how Britain “Made the Modern World”. The final words of the book flip that formula: actually, he tells us, Britain unmade the world. The concluding salvo of The Great Defiance strives to offer us an alternative to this (apparently ubiquitous) way of explaining the emergence of the modern world.

Veevers expertly weaves together a tapestry of historical accounts, personal anecdotes, and vivid descriptions, bringing to life the triumphs, struggles, and complexities of this colossal empire. The level of detail and thoroughness of research is truly commendable, underscoring Veevers' commitment to unearthing the untold stories that have shaped the British Empire's legacy. When Japanese shoguns massacred Christian converts, forbade their subjects from travelling abroad and expelled foreigners, they were merely, according to Veevers, removing “the more corrosive European forces that elsewhere in Asia had paved the way for full-on colonisation” to create “an oasis of peace and prosperity within a maelstrom of violent Western imperialism”. The methodology and perspective that Veevers has adopted means that the book is not comprehensive. It proceeds through the first 300 years of British (technically English, then British) expansion chronologically, but not exhaustively. Most of these areas have been well researched and documented before, and Veevers gives full credit to the historians concerned.

Veevers starts with a bang, claiming that the British Empire, once hailed as the epitome of global domination, was actually a series of epic fails. According to Veevers, the British were like a bunch of kids playing a game of conqueror, constantly tripping over their own shoelaces and stumbling into defeat. It's hard to believe that the same British Empire that once spanned continents and boasted "the sun never sets" was actually a comedy of errors led by the Keystone Cops of colonialism, but Veevers insists on this farcical narrative with a straight face.