India, Jan. 24 -- For 150 years, from the reign of Louis XIV to the downfall of Napoleon, France was an aggressive imperial power in South Asia. The French established an empire in India, only to see their dominant position undermined. Exploding the myth of a benign French presence on the subcontinent, Robert Ivermee reveals how France's Indian empire relied on war-making, conquest, regime change and slavery. He considers influential French figures' reactions to the collapse of the imperial project, not least their deployment of new ideas, such as freedom and the rights of man, to justify fresh ventures of domination, even as colonial authorities failed to acknowledge the equality of French India's diverse peoples, both before and after the French Revolution. Glorious Failure tackles topics that remain vital and urgent in today's world....