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Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj
No empire in history built so variously as the British empire in India. The buildings there attest to the richness of an imperial presence that lasted – from the first trading settlement to the end of the Raj – some three hundred years. The attitude of the British to India was compounded partly of arrogance, but partly also of homesickness, and it shows in their constructions. Georgian terraces were adapted to tropical conditions, Victorian railway stations were elaborately orientalized, seaside villas were adjusted to suit Himalayan conditions, and everywhere the fundamental ambivalence of the British empire, a baffling mixture of good and evil, was mirrored in the imperial architecture.
This book, now reissued with an introduction by Simon Winchester, was the first to describe the whole range of British constructions in India. The text and photographs illustrate these buildings not simply as physical objects, but as reflections of an empire's mingled emotions. Stones of Empire charts an enterprise in architecture, engineering, and social adaptation unique in human history.
This book, now reissued with an introduction by Simon Winchester, was the first to describe the whole range of British constructions in India. The text and photographs illustrate these buildings not simply as physical objects, but as reflections of an empire's mingled emotions. Stones of Empire charts an enterprise in architecture, engineering, and social adaptation unique in human history.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1983
About the author
Simon Winchester
94 books2,355 followersSimon Winchester, OBE, is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who resides in the United States. Through his career at The Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. As an author, Simon Winchester has written or contributed to over a dozen nonfiction books and authored one novel, and his articles appear in several travel publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic.
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 20, 2021
I found the book very interesting especially since I lived in Mumbai, India for three years. While the main purpose of the Spanish Empire was to evangelize and they settled in Latin America before the English arrived in England the authors seem to ignore everything that is not part of the anglo speaking world. Language Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. Mexico City and Lima were cities in the metropolitan sense before anything equivalent existed in the United States, Mexico had the first printing press on the continent, the first university, and the oldest hospital on the entire American Continent was founded by Cortez in the heart of Mexico City and, to date has never stopped being a hospital. Mexico City was called the City of Palaces by an English traveller Charles Latrobe who published his impressions in his book, practically impossible to find The Rambler. Also while the Americans call their country America, I think that historians and professors should remember that America is a continent that extends from Alaska to the point of Argentina and Chile. Aside these minor comments I enjoyed the book.
May 12, 2023
I loved this book. I found Jan Morris' writing very interesting and easy to read. I liked the way the book was laid out and the order of the subjects covered. The chapter summarising the layout of the big Imperial cities, I enjoyed particularly. I also welcomed and agreed with many of her comments contrasting the splendours of the Raj with the housing and conditions of ordinary Indians and sympathised with the plight of the people. I loved the photographs and indeed searched for others where a building was mentioned but not illustrated. I read the book as it was one of the reference sources for a course I did online about the architecture of Brtish India. I couldn't put the book down, and am now looking to read more Jan Morris books, and searching for a similar book about buildings, monuments, places of worship and housing designed and built by the people of India. Anyone know of one?
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June 2, 2020Jan Morris books always offer an in-depth analysis of the topic and this one is no exception.
Though I love her works, I find I spend more time looking words up in a dictionary than usual and these books turn into vocab-building exercises for me . . . not a bad thing but it takes me a while to get through them.
Though I love her works, I find I spend more time looking words up in a dictionary than usual and these books turn into vocab-building exercises for me . . . not a bad thing but it takes me a while to get through them.
April 22, 2019
A beautifully written account of Imperial buildings in India. Jan Morris possesses a fine architectural sense: and the text is an impressive study of colonialism. The photographs are excellent. The book is imbued with a bitter-sweet nostalgia.
June 3, 2018
A cruel era, but beautiful and so nostalgic
June 1, 2019
Fascinating for Jan Morris's precise ironies and perceptive wit on the architectural heritage of empire. To be sipped, not gulped.
November 28, 2020
This book looks in detail at the architecture of India under the British Raj. Quite interesting.
August 23, 2023
Jan Morris prose is so simple but brilliant and effortless read. She covers the building of British India and how they affect the culture and society.
May 26, 2021
This book is a combination of words and pictures - my advice is that the small pocket paperback format is not up to the job; instead look for the large format hardback editions to best enjoy reading it.
As a very individual view of some buildings photographed on one visit, this book is a good read - but it doesn't cover its stated subject; for that it is a let-down. The problem with the contents of the book is its concentration on large official "statement" buildings - yet as iconic a legacy are the bungalows, post-offices, schools and colleges, dak-bungalows, country railway stations, canals, bridges, regimental HQs in the hills, public libraries, shopping streets, parish churches and social clubs. For those topics - you need a very different book.
My second critical comment is that the photographer didn't seem to have been given the time to work on the subject - just look at what other photographers achieved with a similar brief; for example IN THE SHADOW OF THE RAJ by Derry Moore.
So given a very narrow coverage of the title, and the weakness of the photographs, this has to be a 3-star book only. This is a shame - beacuse it is a 5-star topic! I am hoping that other GOODREADERS will be posting ideas of other books on the topic to be reading.
Best wishes to you all - Paul C
As a very individual view of some buildings photographed on one visit, this book is a good read - but it doesn't cover its stated subject; for that it is a let-down. The problem with the contents of the book is its concentration on large official "statement" buildings - yet as iconic a legacy are the bungalows, post-offices, schools and colleges, dak-bungalows, country railway stations, canals, bridges, regimental HQs in the hills, public libraries, shopping streets, parish churches and social clubs. For those topics - you need a very different book.
My second critical comment is that the photographer didn't seem to have been given the time to work on the subject - just look at what other photographers achieved with a similar brief; for example IN THE SHADOW OF THE RAJ by Derry Moore.
So given a very narrow coverage of the title, and the weakness of the photographs, this has to be a 3-star book only. This is a shame - beacuse it is a 5-star topic! I am hoping that other GOODREADERS will be posting ideas of other books on the topic to be reading.
Best wishes to you all - Paul C
August 28, 2010
Interesting book looking at the legacy of the British Raj in India.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews