Sathnam Sanghera

This is a very well done synthesis of contemporary research on the history and legacy of the British empire, interspersed with the kind of personal nonfiction that I gather the author is better known for.

The chapter on museums (I think it was chapter 3?) is excellent and would provide a solid introduction to anyone who is interested in debates about cultural property. The chapter "We Were Here Because You Were There" is also extremely well done and makes an argument for a "multicultural Britain" that existed long before the Windrush generation.

Sanghera uses a wide variety of sources to argue that the legacy of empire suffuses many aspects of contemporary Britain, and that empire's history is simultaneously hypervisible and swept under the rug. He also suggests that the empire brought both good and bad outcomes to Britain and its colonies.

This book is definitely polemical and probably mostly appeals to an audience that already feels a certain way about the history of empire, but I thought his account was quite balanced. Sanghera is careful to distinguish patriotism from nationalism, and he ends on a cautiously hopeful note.… (plus d'informations)

The author, who is of Sikh heritage but was born in Britain, examines the consequences of the British Empire on modern Britain. His account is balanced, not polemic, but despite his wit and enlightened outlook, traces of anger and exasperation still come through by the end of the book. Certainly the history of the Empire isn't taught well in Britain, and to most American readers it is probably even more obscure. This book doesn't avoid the most horrific incidents of massacre and genocide. As for the current controversies, such as removal of statues, Sanghera makes the perfectly reasonable point that taking down a statue of an imperialist does no more to change history than taking down Nazi symbols in Germany after the war changed the history of World War II.

Is there a book that tries to do the same thing for our American divide on politics, race, and history? Or is our own country past hope?… (plus d'informations)