The Spectator

Books of the Year | 19 November 2005

A selection of the best and worst books of the year, chosen by some of our regular contributors

issue 19 November 2005

A selection of the best and worst books of the year, chosen by some of our regular contributors

Jonathan Sumption

Niall Ferguson’s Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (Allen Lane, £25) is a marvel of objective iconoclasm, much better than the associated TV series, which presents one of the world’s great liberal empires without the usual overtones of Pecksniffian disapproval. Fran

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