Last night I began a small book called “Empire” by Niall Furguson, all about the rise and fall of the British Empire, and whether or not it was (to use his lingo) a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. I haven’t even gotten a quarter way through it yet, but there has been a good bit about what went wrong in America, and why Canada didn’t follow the American lead. Not to mention the subjugation of India, the Christian religious invasion of Africa, the beginning and ending of slavery in the British Empire, and the beginnings of the reign of Queen Victoria (who, I might add, is a favorite of mine).

I had trouble concentrating, but it’s a good read. Concise, alive, witty, and historically accurate.

I’ve always wondered. How can you be sure that the history books have it right? Maybe a whole lot of selective editing and memory “lapses” have ensured that we read a slightly — or even very — warped history of the world.

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