An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List
68. The British Empire
July 01, 2021
Description
Books Referenced
Author: Edward Said
Context:
Mentioned alongside Paul Gilroy as an author Satnam read to understand psychological legacies of empire
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
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
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
Author: William Shakespeare
Context:
Referenced in a listener question about Jacobean attitudes to empire, discussing Prospero's treatment of Caliban and Ariel
Author: H.G. Wells
Context:
Described as one of the great anti-imperial novels, mentioned because it references the Tasmanian genocide at the beginning
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
Author: George MacDonald Fraser
Context:
The first Flashman novel, mentioned as providing the theme about the disaster of the Afghan war
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
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
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
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