The Evil Empire

A new book claims to blame England for the evils of the world,
It's called "The evil Empire: 101 ways that England ruined the world".

And the site is here: http://www.evilempirebook.com/

It must be tongue in cheek. One way listed is that Elton John was knighted.

More seriously, the scholarship looks dodgy. Hiram Maxim is mentioned as the inventor of the machine gun.
But the Gatling gun, invented in America, preceded it, so the concept was already out there. And the French had the Mitrailleuse, a primitive machine gun, in 1870.

More importantly, Sir Hiram Maxim was actually American, not English. He emigrated to the UK at the age of 41, became naturalised and was knighted. One can echo the remark of the Duke of Wellington: if you go to live in a stable it doesn't make you a horse.

The comments about the industrial revolution leading to slums, pollution and child labour are merely ignorant. Whoever was first would have been the first to experience those evils and find the solutions - town planning, sewers, Factory Acts.
The world should thank us for being the first to try out industrialism.
The world learned from our mistakes.
Adam Smith observed in "The Wealth of Nations" that colonies quickly become richer than the mother countries, because they can go stright to the finished product without waste.

I think the world owes us - say No to the claim for reparations !!