Since its publication in 1967, Burden of Empire has been widely praised and criticized for its controversial approach to the problem of colonialism in Africa. The authors have challenged the new "orthodoxy" about Africa—the belief that little but evil and exploitation has resulted from the era of European colonialism. Burden of Empire is, therefore, in the words of George Shepperson, "a provocative thesis [which] could set off a controversy among historians similar to that engendered by Robinson's and Gallagher's Africa and the Victorians."

"This long, comprehensive and well-documented book is to be welcomed as another very useful contribution to the important contemporary debate on the value of the Western presence in Africa y two authors who have already placed the world of scholarship in their debt… Special attention should be given to the authors' informed and salty comments on the various viewpoints and fashions of thought and emotion which are presently dominating various viewpoints and fashions of thought… and [their] astringent realism…" - Kenneth Kirkwood, Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 5, Jan.-Apr. 1970