'The British empire post1815 was a vast human phenomenon, built largely on forced labour. This book tackles its complexity and diversity, its tyranny and hesitant idealism head on and the result is a ground-breaking synthesis highly ambitious, seriously detailed, patient, painstaking and deeply humane.' Alan Atkinson, University of Sydney 'Brilliantly argued, evidentially rich and geographically sweeping, this work reveals how British inquiries into empire shaped both imperial and domestic realms in the 'Age of Reform'. It conjures a compelling human narrative from the archives of the state, one as attentive to the enslaved and dispossessed as to imperial overlords.' Zoė Laidlaw, University of Melbourne