Alan Lester

How did a relatively small European country acquire such an extraordinary global empire in the first place, and why did it eventually disappear? Was the British Empire fundamentally a system of exploitation, violence, and racial domination, or is the reality considerably more complicated? To discuss the rise, fall, and legacy of the British Empire, I'm joined by one of Britain's leading historians of empire.

Professor Alan Lester is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Sussex and editor of The Truth About Empire: Real Histories of British Colonialism.

So hi, Alan.

Thanks so much for, for joining me on, on this discussion.