The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire

The author has written some of the most readable modern history on India, and this one explains the part I still find hardest to wrap my head around: a private company slowly turning itself into a state. The conquering/colonization of India by the East India Company didn’t happen in one clean sweep; instead it exploited fragmentation, debts, and alliances, then kept ratcheting its power until the situation became irreversible. I found it equal parts astounding and infuriating, because the mechanics are so recognizable: incentives, opportunism, and a lot of people confidently narrating their own greed as “order.”