The Great Defiance: How the world took on the British Empire

When: Monday, June 26, 2023, 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Where: David Sizer Lecture Theatre, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End

At this seminar, held in conjunction with the School of History, David Deevers will present his new book, The Great Defiance: How the world took on the British Empire.

The story of the British Empire is a familiar one: Britain came, it saw, it conquered, forging a glorious world empire upon which the sun never set. In fact, far from being the tale of a single nation imposing its will upon the world, the expanding British Empire frequently found itself frustrated by the power and tenacious resistance of the Indigenous and non-European people it encountered. From gruelling wars in Ireland to the failure to curtail North African Corsair states, all the way to the collapse of commercial operations in East Asia, British attempts to create an imperial enterprise often ended in disaster and even defeat.

In The Great Defiance, Dr David Veevers, looks beyond the myths of triumph and into the realities of British misadventures in the early days of Empire. This book retells the history of early Empire from the all too familiar story of conquest to one of empowering defiance and resistance.

At this discussion at the School of History's Research Seminar, David will present The Great Defiance, and Dr Simon Layton and Dr Misha Ewen will act as respondents. It will be held in the David Sizer Lecture Theatre in the Bancroft Building on QMUL's Mile End campus, which is number 31 on this map. It will be followed by drinks which all are welcome to join us for.