Book · 2019
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
by William Dalrymple
A private trading company raises its own army and conquers most of India, and this is the story of a business doing what most empires couldn't.
What does Reddit think of The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire?
r/AskHistorians recommends this one more than most books it discusses, and does so with real caveats attached. The ↑180 comment calls it 'the best starting place for the general reader,' recent and acclaimed, better than most predecessors at the subject. The ↑79 comment goes further: a historian answering an unrelated Rome question still reaches for Dalrymple's Anarchy as the India source they personally rely on. But the sharpest reply here (↑59) walks the praise back hard, calling itself 'wary' of Dalrymple specifically because of 'the games he plays with his sourcing,' tracing that suspicion back to his earlier book The Last Mughal, and flagging 'issues about balance' alongside an 'old school' narrative approach. That's not a fringe complaint; it's posted in the same subreddit that keeps recommending the book to beginners. The pattern across the thread is pop-history-versus-academic-rigor playing out on one specific title, not a blanket verdict either way.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · The default entry point for general readers on East India Company history, per r/AskHistorians
- · A specialist's wariness about Dalrymple's sourcing and balance, traced back to his earlier book The Last Mughal
- · Cited as a working bibliography source even in answers about unrelated regions
- · A live case study for the site's own pop-history-versus-academic-rigor argument
Common praise
- + The ↑180 comment calls it 'the best starting place for the general reader,' better than most of its predecessors at the subject.
- + The ↑79 commenter, answering a question about Rome, still reaches for Dalrymple's Anarchy as their go-to India source.
Common criticism
- − The ↑59 reply says it's 'wary' of the book specifically, citing 'the games' Dalrymple plays with his sourcing.
- − That same comment flags 'issues about balance' and calls Dalrymple's approach 'old school,' tracing the same doubts back to his earlier book The Last Mughal.
Who it's for
Start here if you want the East India Company story without a monograph's throat-clearing; that's the exact case the ↑180 comment makes for general readers. Historians who already know the specialist literature are the ones voicing the sourcing concerns (↑59), so if you're reading for scholarly rigor instead of narrative sweep, treat this as one entry point among several, not the last word. Pair it with something more specialized if the sourcing critique matters to how you read history.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Mostly it comes down to a confluence of three factors that came together to give the EIC the chance to mostly subsume India, the collapse of the Mughal Empire, a window of strong military superiority, and luck. The collapse of the Mughal empire that had ruled most of India for quite a while. For a…
“The best starting place for the general reader is William Dalrymple's recent and acclaimed *The Anarchy* (2019), which makes a much better stab than most of its predecessors at seeing …
“No really easy way to give a bibliography here. For India I rely a great deal on William Dalrymple's *The Anarchy*, for Africa Stephen Ellis' *Seasons of Rain*, for Rome David Mattingly's *Imperialism, Power and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire*. For Rome an important note is that there are …
“I am not a historian. I am merely someone who has studied this topic, thought about it and discussed it at length. I will provide my sources towards the … collapsing and Britain was desperate to extricate itself from an ugly situation. The solution was to partition the subcontinent into the modern n…
“Wow! This movie seems like a ton of fun. To get a better idea about what film you're referencing I watched this compilation. I will speak to a trend that was contiguous with British rule of India in both company and home rule and that would be food ins…
“I personally think pop history is inherently a good thing. Yes, there's a lot of poor books out there, but there's also a lot of decent ones. It's easy to get caught up in the more academic side of things and dismiss a lot of these works, but the reality is a lot of people who are interested in hist…
“I would add to u/MagratMakeTheTea's very helpful answer, two further comments. First, the line between 'Academic' and 'Popular' history is complex, and much less clear than you suggest. It would probably be better to see it as a spectrum. On one end, there are specialist monographs and journal arti…
“Honestly I'm a little wary about Dalrymple's *Anarchy*. I've been wary of him ever since *The Last Mughal* because of the games he plays with his sourcing, but the Anarchy has some issues about balance. Dalrymple has something of a very old school approach, and a lot of his text seems to be deeply i…
“Here is a fairly recent and extensive academic source by Tillman W. Nechtman, whose 2005 PhD dissertation had concerned the Nabobs: Nechtman, Tillman W. *Nabobs: Empire and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Britain*. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. [Google Books link](
“He also has a very good book on the same: The Anarchy tells one of history’s most remarkable stories: how the Mughal Empire―which dominated world trade and manufacturing and possessed almost unlimited resources―fell apart and was replaced by a multinational corporation based thousands of miles ove…
“Another recommendation is “The Anarchy” by William Dalrymple. It does a good job of showing the overall morale and attitudes of the Mughal court and the princes during the 1700s.
“Bear in mind that the contemporary nation state India did not exist as a unified form during the so-called Age of Discovery. Its borders were created in … hopefully that helps. Go-to academic books on this would be Ronald Inden's "Imagining India" or Dirks' "Castes of Mind". William Dalrymple is goo…
“Yes, sounds about what I had in mind. Although Id caution one thing: While the ocean was important for the British East India Company's conquest - they … British were rarely making ocean-borne amphibious landings, and more stocking up at trade ports they held for over 100 years, so they could train …
“I think your post is missing a few steps in how the EIC gain control of India. The EIC gained control of Bengal, before the acts of parliament put strick controls around its actions. The EIC acted as both a trading outfit, but as the 18th century progressed and the Mughal empire had trouble cont…
“I just finished reading “The Anarchy” by William Dalrymple, which is all about the history of the East India Company. Fantastic read. Cannot recommend it enough. It reads like a novel.
Convinced? Pick up The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
What else does r/AskHistorians read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire — frequently asked
Is The Anarchy by William Dalrymple a good starting point for East India Company history?+
Yes, per r/AskHistorians' own recommendation. The ↑180 comment calls it 'the best starting place for the general reader,' recent and acclaimed, and says it does a better job than most predecessors at the subject. Nothing displayed here argues for a different entry point.
Do historians trust The Anarchy's sourcing?+
Not unanimously. The ↑59 comment says it's 'wary' of Dalrymple specifically, citing 'the games he plays with his sourcing' and flagging 'issues about balance,' with the doubts traced back to his earlier book The Last Mughal. That skepticism sits alongside, not instead of, the book's popularity.
Is The Anarchy the same kind of book as Dalrymple's The Last Mughal?+
The ↑59 comment treats them as connected rather than separate cases: the commenter's wariness about The Anarchy's sourcing is explicitly carried over from having read The Last Mughal first, suggesting the same critique applies across Dalrymple's work generally, not just this one title.
Do professional historians actually cite The Anarchy in their own answers?+
Yes. The ↑79 comment comes from someone answering a question about Rome who still lists Dalrymple's Anarchy as their personal go-to source for India, alongside other regional picks. That's citation as a working reference, not just a casual recommendation.