The Anarchy

"William Dalrymple has long chronicled, with great fealty, the British Raj and the collapse of the Mughal Empire in India. With The Anarchy, he tries to answer a central question: How did the East India Company evolve from a trading corporation into a colonial power that eventually controlled much of the Indian subcontinent, looting much of its riches in the process? It’s a great story told in fabulous detail with interesting, if at times utterly rapacious or incompetent, characters populating it."