No empire in history built so variously as the British empire in India: the buildings there attest to the richness of an imperial presence that lasted
- from the first trading settlement to the end of the Raj
- some three hundred years. The attitude of the British to India was compounded partly of arrogance, but partly also of homesickness, & it shows in their constructions. Georgian terraces were adapted to tropical conditions, Victorian railway stations were elaborately orientalized, seaside villas were adjusted to suit Himalayan conditions, & everywhere the fundamental ambivalence of the British empire, a baffling mixture of good & evil, was mirrored in the imperial architecture. This book, now reissued with a new introduction by Simon Winchester, was the first to describe the whole range of British constructions in India. The text & photographs illustrate these buildings not simply as physical objects, but as reflections of an empire`s mingled emotions. Stones of Empire charts an enterprise in architecture, engineering, & social adaptation unique in human history.