This book, first published in 1943, sets forth the history of the rise and development of the states of princely India from the end of the eighteenth century until the beginning of nineteenth. This was also the formative period for the East India Company and thus for India itself. It describes the processes, military and political, whereby modern India was formed.

Edward John Thompson was a British scholar, novelist, historian and translator. He was a Leverhulme Research Fellow from 1934 to 1936 and a Research Fellow in Indian history at Oriel College from 1936 to 1940.