India & The British Empire

The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857, by William Dalrymple, Knopf.

Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, by Alex von Tunzelman, Henry Holt & Company.

The reviewer in the NY Times wrote: "The truth is that Britain wanted to quit India with dignity if possible, but speed above all; the cost in human lives was of secondary importance." Sounds like a prelude to Iraq.