Reading about the East India Company

May 28, 2004 1:35 PM

My hazy memory of high school history is leading me to see parallels between the era of the British East India company and our current situation in Iraq. I'd like to read more to find out if this makes sense. Does anyone know of a particularly good book on the East India Company? I don't usually read history books so I don't know how to figure out which are credible and which aren't.
posted by small_ruminant to media & arts (6 comments total)

Dutch East India Co.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:43 PM on May 28, 2004

letter 109 in nehru's glimpses of world history describes the great revolt of 1857 and, with typical disregared for chronology, the next letter describes the history and economic impact of the company in more detail. opinionated and brief, but it sets the scene from a sympathetic (to india) viewpoint (sorry, another mention of this book on mefi, but it seemed relevant...).
posted by andrew cooke at 3:45 PM on May 28, 2004

just flicking through the amazon books, you can get some idea of where they're coming from by whether they use "great revolt" or "indian mutiny" ;o)
posted by andrew cooke at 3:46 PM on May 28, 2004

This piece on The British Presence in India in the 18th Century would be a good starting point; and it has a reading-list at the end in case you want to explore further. Or if you want a really comprehensive reading-list, try the India Office website.

John Keay's The Honourable Company (1991) is a good general history of the East India Company for non-specialists. C.A. Bayly, Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire (1988), if you want something more detailed. Hope this helps.
posted by verstegan at 2:30 AM on May 29, 2004

The BBC's History of Britain documentary covers this pretty nicely.
posted by milovoo at 9:10 AM on May 29, 2004

Cool! Thank you! AskMe comes through again!
posted by small_ruminant at 12:15 PM on May 29, 2004