An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

68. The British Empire

July 01, 2021

Description

The British Empire: good, bad or neither? And how does its legacy shape us today? Journalist Sathnam Sanghera, author of “Empireland”, joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to explore this...
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Books Referenced

Orientalism

Author: Edward Said

Context:

Mentioned alongside Paul Gilroy as an author Satnam read to understand psychological legacies of empire

Our Island Story

Author: H.E. Marshall

Context:

Mentioned as David Cameron's favourite children's book of all time, discussed in context of how it barely touched upon empire

Flashman and the Mountain of Light

Author: George MacDonald Fraser

Context:

Novel published in 1990, quoted at length regarding the British Empire being acquired through various means including greed, Christianity, and policy

Empireland

Author: Satnam Sanghera

Context:

Described as a survey of contemporary attitudes to the British Empire and a vital contribution to the debate, published at the beginning of the year

The Tempest

Author: William Shakespeare

Context:

Referenced in a listener question about Jacobean attitudes to empire, discussing Prospero's treatment of Caliban and Ariel

The War of the Worlds

Author: H.G. Wells

Context:

Described as one of the great anti-imperial novels, mentioned because it references the Tasmanian genocide at the beginning

Heart of Darkness

Author: Joseph Conrad

Context:

Mentioned as the great story about how the coloniser can enter a heart of darkness where all moral norms get dissolved

Flashman

Author: George MacDonald Fraser

Context:

The first Flashman novel, mentioned as providing the theme about the disaster of the Afghan war

The Communist Manifesto

Author: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Context:

Referenced for its opening pages where Marx talks about the achievements of the bourgeoisie and how they transformed the world

Blood Legacy

Author: Alex Renton

Context:

Book about him facing up to his family's history of slavery, tells a story about a Scottish man going to the Caribbean

After Empire

Author: Paul Gilroy

Context:

Mentioned as an author Satnam read to understand the psychological legacies of empire, specifically about the effect of colonization upon colonizers

A Journey

Author: Tony Blair

Context:

Tony Blair's memoir mentioned, specifically the passage about handing back Hong Kong to the Chinese and being only dimly aware of the history