Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World

by Steven A. Grasse, Penny Rimbaud (Foreword)

In The Evil Empire, Steven A. Grasse exposes the secret history of England’s global misdeeds. He asks what few have dared to ask: Having spent the better half of the millennium
turning the world into their personal litter box, where do the English get off blaming everything on America?
 
After all, whose imperialistic shenanigans is Osama bin Laden really trying to avenge? Whose landgrabbing ways put the Palestinians and Israelis at each others’ throats? Who invented machine guns, wage slavery, and concentration camps?
 
The closer you look at English­­ history, the more you realize they’re in no position to be pointing fingers. This outrageous indictment is sure to make blue bloods boil on both sides of the Atlantic.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, British Literature, Humor

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Drivel!

This is supposed to be funny, but it's about as funny as watching a kitten getting run over. Where to begin?

Oh, why not... with the book jacket blurb: "Steven A. Grasse is a man of many talents. (of which writing is manifestly not one). He is the founder and CEO of a large independent ad agency, owns several successful clothing and liquor brands, and has written and directed many independent films. (And this makes him an authority on Britain....how precisely?) This is his first book. (And one sincerely hopes his last.)

Listen, bub, if you're going to do sarcastic, you've got to expect to get as good as you give. The conceit of this little tome (marked down more than half price its original discounted price at Amazon.com, I note with some satisfaction) is that the author is going to list 101 ways in which Britain messed up the world. To wit: "Their Country Has Too Many Flags and Too Many Names" - an entry that chides the British for the fact that "Wales, Ireland, and Scotland are England's obedient bitches."

See what I mean? This is not funny. All one can summon up after reading it is a feeling of vague embarrassment for the author, rather like the feeling upon seeing a co-worker getting sloshed at an office party. He then gets up on a table, put a lampshade on his head, and sings, "I'm a little teapot." Off key. That kind of funny.

Here's another entry. (And, again, there's a feeling that the author is trying to be humorous, but ends up being only spiteful and lame: "They Befouled the World's Stages with Incomprehensible Dramas." A blessedly brief screed on Shakespeare follows, the central argument being, "his plays are too damn hard to understand." (Well... obviously too hard for the author, at least.)

There is one thing that I liked about this book, however. The black-white-and-red illustrations on the cover and opposite each entry are rather nicely done. Perhaps this was what made a friend purchase this book and later give it to me. I can't imagine anyone who read more than two pages of it actually plunking down good cash for this toilet paper disguised as a book.

[Al · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny & Entertaining. BUT, it was harsh and unneccessary in some parts. It was almost like a joke that has gone too far yet the teaser doesn't get it. I thought some points were excellent and well thought out; others were just crude and mean. I have British friends, and this adds to my jokes. But, I will draw the line.

[CL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars is generous. This read like a laundry list of whining about Britain. To be sure they HAVE done some terrible things in the world but there was no meat on the bone here.

[Mickey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, this book had potential. The illustrations are quite good, the chapters are categorised very well and from the cover, it looks as though this could be a very interesting read, with some pilger-like research to give the reader some sense that England (even if a root cause, despite the Roman / Greek empires being earlier) is really just one country of many that are today in 'partnership' with many others, some holding a more powerful rank, who dictate world events such as the global economy, trade & commerce, and on society as a whole either directly at government level or through committee's like the UN. I really thought this would show how England initiated certain behaviours, but then at least go on to describe how other more powerful nations today, emulate certain models of those, to create a "ruined world" due to having a far larger reach with more money, influence, modern technology etc.

However, what we get, is a guy who appears to blame England, and make excuses for the US's last century of questionable foreign policies, practices and laws on England. The "We do this, only because England taught us how" mentality, brushing off any significant US scrutiny that would paint them in a more dominant negative light than England and highlighting all blame on England. It was very one-sided and didn't appear to provide any long-lasting topics to think about and came across as bitter and ignorant on a lot of subjects.

This is a shame, because I did hope for a better book, and it could have been so much better, so it's a 2 for me

[Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 Star for the illustrations - 0 stars for the writing

Homophobic, sexist, and obsessed with the British pagan agenda (like...wut? That's not a thing!). Poorly researched, inaccurate, and deliberately misleading with the few facts it does get right. Instead of being funny (I think that's what it was aiming for) it just comes out as bitter, and more than a little deluded, ramblings.

Illustrations are pretty stylish though.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Funny, witty, and clever.
Until a marked point about halfway through, after which point it starts chest-thumping for America.

[Joana Valente · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish reading it. Too much unnecessary negativity and not funny (if that was the goal). Also not so sure about the historical accuracy either..

[Joaquim Pedro Ferreira · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've read this book in one go when I was in the toilet.
It is a toilet book. It makes sense.

In this book a biased American citizen, homophobic, racist and with complexes about his heritage raised a good number of truths about the British Empire. Some good points soiled by his own nationalist (that he calls patriotism) and inferiority complex.

The British Empire did uncountable atrocities and the British didn't fully accepted their responsibility in the misery unleashed by them. But the toilet analogy where Uncle Sam is cleaning the toilet is absolutely wrong. To be correct, Uncle Sam would use the clogged toilet clogging it even more.

I would think that in the XXI century no publisher would publish a book selling the idea that the US is the savior of the World. C'mon, there's too many Allende's, too many invasions, too many Native American killed to maintain that role.

The book wasn't mine. I couldn't use it's sheets of paper to wipe out my ass on the way out. Wasted paper.

[Sahara_reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although Steven meant to throw his own self hate and furious on the what he called Evil Empire. But page after page Mr. Grasse keeps crediting the British for all of their inventions from politics, law, warfare, welfare, tabloid, and so on. Points after points he puts his own negative feedback “sometimes without evidence, simple self opinion” via looking into the empty half of the glass. Indeed we all knowledgeable of what the imperialist and the Great Britain empire did had have some or even more of bad and “evil” actions on the globe, but give me an example of a peaceful empire which was free from missteps!
In conclusion, this magazine like book, is full of Steven’s diaries (the weak language and the vulgarity of the writing style), yet it does have some nice historic facts “for instance: The Earl of Sandwich, The Kingdom of Sealand, etc” and as he tried to include his own views to disgust the reader off The UK, but from what he didn’t know, he indirectly praised The Evil Empire!

[Andy Tate · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Inaccurate history..and half of it wasn't even about empire. Just a bitter American. Who writes like he has no idea. Some of it was laughably ridiculous. Reading this was a disappointment and an absolute waste of my time.

[Dana Freeman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very biased. Funny but not great.

[Mega · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blames the British too much for the problems of the modern day. Though it is an attempt at satirical comedic history.

[George Foord · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfunny and inaccurate throughout

[Martin]

If I could give this book negative stars I would. It is undoubtedly the worst book I've read in the last 5 years or more. I now have the predicament of deciding what to do with it. I am embarrassed to put it on my bookshelf. It would be disservice to society for me to give it away to a friend or donate it to a library.



In terms of writing it is a mess. The author should have just spend the time to actually learn some history and it an of itself would have been enough to make an interesting book. Instead he tries to make it comical and fails miserably. His arguments are filled with red herrings and contradictions. It is very apparent that the author is not a historian, not a political scientist and defiantly not a comedian. I picked the book up on a whim in the bargan bin for $5.99 with a normal retail price of $15.95. I wish I could take it back to get my money back. This book is that bad.



Lets try an example. Titled “They Supported the confederacy” in this argument the author makes note that when James Mason was sent by the confederacy to London and was captured on route. The British Government demanded his release. President Lincoln freed Mason and sent him on his way. Mason spoke to Parliament and they chose not to support his cause. And yet its titled “They Supported the confederacy”. Oh and it just goes down hill from there. I'll end this with a exert from the book about media.



“Or if I want things played right down the middle, I trust CNN to give it to me straight.”

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good. Which is actually kind of a disappointment, because i was expecting excellent. The author goes for some rather petty and childish options where there is no need. Britain's control and exploitation of India, Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, New Guinea, and Iraq could alone take up volumes on how to ruin the world. The point is that while this book is fun and entertaining it seems rather shallow and petty when compared to the real ways in which Britain has ruined the world and millions of lives. While some of these points are in there this is more of an opinion book as opposed to a fact based look at the past. I would rather read about how political actions of the Empire changed the world and created instability than how much cricket sucks, because even if you don't like cricket it's a heck of a lot better than slavery.

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. One or two of the topics are pretty interesting, such as how Britain created the first concentration camps, while most were truly stupid; "Harry Potter, the 'boy wizard,'...is but the latest attempt of the underground Druid elite to reestablish their credibility in the twenty-first century."[return]Other stupid entries are about Britain's pagan ancestors (he is obsessed with this topic), Britain did not pull their own weight on D-Day since they did not suffer as many casualties as America (apparently no one ever told the author that American leaders decided who would storm which beach), and that tea breaks make the British vain, lazy, gluttons (what about Americans and our coffee and cigarette breaks every two hours?).[return] It was a fun read just to see how stupid some people can be.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was going to read every word in it but I couldn't .
It's unpleasant.

Let me quote daily mail's book review;
'Americans are sick to death of being the world's whipping-boys. They hate seeing their young generation voice its shame about Iraq, environmental destruction, George Bush, McDonald's, Microsoft's monopolism and all the other global atrocities laid at America's door.'

'They want to see their own people walk tall again, and they are groping around for ways to achieve this. The most obvious is to find somebody else to chuck mud at. The British are as handy as you can get. We are the ones who ran the world before America tried.'

That'll explain about this book.

[Michael Damian Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I originally rated this one star, but with hindsight I've given it a 3. I still find the narrative a tad smug, and I'm not even a patriot, but it offers some negative points in British history, but then again that could be attributed to any country without a doubt hence the 3 award. Don't pay full price for it (I paid £1) although it could serve as a home security its that solid a book so maybe that's it's absolute value 😂😂

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was laugh out loud funny. Easy to read in bits and pieces - just a couple of paragraphs for each of the 101 ways Britian has ruined the world.
Why did I read it? I guess it sounded funny. My mother-in-law was born in Britian, but is a naturalized American now. It will be fun to tease her about some of this.

[Shing Lin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Um...

I don't hate or really like British people in general. But honestly, this book is taking it too far. You honestly have to make a book on how Britain ruined the world? Please. Every country has degraded this world, but how much is another thing.

Either way, I'm just here to say that this book is stupid and stereotypical. Very, dudes.

[Courtney · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is there a way I can give this book a zero? It was the worst thing I've ever read. A copy of Playboy from the '60s would have more intelligent commentary and, shockingly, less racism and homophobia.

[Peter Lawrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

So far it seems like anti-British drivel to me.