At the recent, virtual West Cork History Festival (28 July 2021), Nigel Biggar offered an assessment of the fashionable view that the British Empire was essentially racist, even Nazi, concluding that it lacks all merit.
Explaining why he holds the view he does—one that has aroused much critical attention—Biggar considers three issues: racism, genocide, and cultural repression. In so doing, he presents historical data that upends theoretical prejudices, and he paints a picture of British imperial history whose variety of goods and evils cannot be measured and balanced with ideological ease.
A transcript of the talk can be found at ‘Briefings for Britain’. A recording of the presentation, which includes questions and responses, has been published to YouTube (see video below).
The McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics & Public Life is a research institute at the University of Oxford.