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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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The Anarchy
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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
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- 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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
super duper p.c but still good
In Orwell the central party, the equivalent of the intellectual, they don't know their political correct imprint. So excellent, and very gentlemanly Dalrymple thinks the Mogal Empire is indeed Indian and spread happiness and love through the lands of the Aryans until the dastardly English arrived. But listening to V.S Naipaul's equally brilliant history of Islam, their is a different picture. And how many times do we have to hear the the verbal trashing of those very bad plundering English? I am also listening to Jan Morris' history written in the 1960's, and here we have a different take of similar events to this book. Still, overall, this book is amazing. Dalrymple is a genius who can write with the reader in mind. But it is a shame the P.C. is there for all to see. We all fear for our careers.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-07-20
Fast narration ruins the book
Wouldn’t recommend this listen to anybody. I am near the half way point but I don’t know if I can finish it. I remember only about 5% of what I listened to so why bother? The narration makes the book incredibly difficult to understand. But the content is also at fault. There are too many details, too many names and I am not sure if all of them are necessary. There is little analysis, just the narration of events. When this is combined with the breakneck speed of narration the book becomes an agony to listen to rather than a joy. I wonder if the narrator understood anything from his reading. Also his emphasis on every other word is very irritating. Just the perfect example that not everybody can narrate every book.
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2 people found this helpful