Rhetorical Situation

Sender

The sender of the excerpt from the book Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World is Niall Ferguson, a Scottish historian who is currently living in the United States, where he writes and gives lectures on history. Ferguson is famous for his positive attitude regarding the British Empire, whose history and legacy he analyzes in the book called Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. Ferguson is a passionate supporter of globalization, which influences his views on the British Empire.

In the excerpt that you have to analyze, Ferguson expresses his belief that the British Empire’s positive influence on the modern world is often ignored: “In truth, the imperial legacy has shaped the modern world so profoundly that we almost take it for gr...