Colonialism and imperialism Books

Book SynopsisMoving between Britain and Jamaica The bonds of family reconstructs the world of commerce, consumption and cultivation sustained through an extended engagement with the business of slavery. Transatlantic slavery was both shaping of and shaped by the dynamic networks of family that established Britain’s Caribbean empire. Tracing the activities of a single extended family – the Hibberts – this book explores how slavery impacted on the social, cultural, economic and political landscape of Britain. It is a history of trade, colonisation, enrichment and the tangled web of relations that gave meaning to the transatlantic world. The Hibberts’s trans-generational story imbricates the personal and the political, the private and the public, the local and the global. It is both the intimate narrative of a family and an analytical frame through which to explore Britain’s history and legacies of slavery.Trade Review'Katie Donington’s fascinating, formidably researched and very important investigation of the manifold ways in which the Hibbert family established its wealth through slave trading and slavery and its outsized role in important aspects of British history, including philanthropy and proslavery, is a book for our times. It deserves a wide readership.'Family and Community History'The Bonds of Family is an engaging, methodically-presented study that brings a unique perspective on the British Atlantic and promises to contribute significantly to studies of Caribbean and British history.'New West Indian Guide'Through its focus on a single family, The bonds of family thus offers a refreshingly human view of how Britain’s slave economy was made, operated, justified and sustained by its perpetrators. Atlantic slavery, Donington shows, was created not by abstract market forces, but through the actions of individuals such as the Hibberts: ambitious people who elevated themselves through the ruthless exploitation of enslaved people.'Continuity and Change'The Bonds of Family is a book about power. [...] Donington’s work, as suggested by the title, is also a book about those bonds that are able to cross geographical and temporal boundaries and connect the past with the present, the inside with the outside, the private and intimate story of a family with the public history of the nation and the empire.'Matilde Cazzola, American Journal of Legal History'Donington’s book is a fascinating read that builds upon a rich literature on the history of families and family enterprise in the British Atlantic world over the long eighteenth century. Yet Donington goes beyond earlier studies in her thorough assessment of the family’s cultural accumulation, physical legacies and investments in Britain and, crucially, her close attention paid to the role of free women – both white women and women of colour – in the cultural economy of West Indian family enterprise. A thoroughly researched and well written book that resonates with contemporary politics, this book contributes to literature on the legacies of slavery in Britain as well as to histories of families, race, and slavery in the Atlantic world.'Erin Trahey, Slavery & Abolition -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Family matters - slavery, commerce, and culture Part I: Family business - commerce, commodities, and credit 1. Manchester 2. Jamaica 3. London Part II: Family politics - defending the slave trade and slavery4. Defending the slave trade 5. Defending slavery Part III: Family culture - domesticating slavery6. Intimate relations: the colony and the metropole7. Consuming passions: Collecting and connoisseurship 8. The culture of refinement: Country houses and philanthropy Epilogue: Family legacies - after abolition Select bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe position of India’s princely states is a relatively under-studied aspect of the British withdrawal from India and the early years of Indian and Pakistani independence. Far from playing second fiddle to events in the British Indian provinces, the princely states played an integral role in the transfer of power in 1947. Under the British Raj, the princely states were politically autonomous, and the rulers of each state had to be cajoled and, in some cases, forced to accede to India or Pakistan. The princes’ commitment to preserving their sovereignty not only threatened the territorial integrity of both South Asian countries but brought them to the brink of war on multiple occasions. Conquering the maharajas tells the often overlooked history of Princely India through the tumultuous end of empire in South Asia and the early years of Indian and Pakistani independence.Trade Review'Conquering the Maharajas is a marvellous piece of scholarship that provides both nuanced empirical accounts and a sophisticated analysis of the integration of princely states into the sovereignty projects of both India and Pakistan. It provides a novel historical perspective of the dramas of nation-building in South Asia over two decades that spanned late colonial constitutional debates, Partition and immediate post-colonial statehood. By focusing on the politics of late colonial India from the standpoint of princely rulers and by analysing various “problem cases” in comparative perspective, Akins provides powerful lessons about the complicated and ambivalent processes involved in the making of modern South Asia.'Adnan Naseemullah, Reader in International Politics, King’s College London'Many histories of the accession of the Indian princely states following the lapse of British paramountcy focus solely on the elite actors. Harrison Akins’ accessible account gives an insight into the role of violence as a strategic tool and the pressures on the princes from below. The book is closely researched and combines narrative and sharp analysis in locating the end of princely India in the wider process of South Asian decolonisation.'Ian Talbot, Emeritus Professor in the History of Modern South Asia, University of Southampton -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Conquering the maharajas 1 British paramountcy and the princely states 2 The nationalist movement and the princely states 3 The All-India Federation, or the first failed accession 4 The debates over India’s constitutional future 5 The princes’ resistance to accession 6 Jammu and Kashmir: ‘The Switzerland of the East’ 7 Hyderabad: The Nizam’s gambit 8 Junagadh: Between the sea and a hard place 9 Kalat: Pakistan’s frontier challenge Conclusion: The false promise of autonomy

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first study of political and legal thinking about the partitions of India and Palestine in 1947. The chapters in the volume, authored by leading scholars of partition, draw attention to the pathways of peoples, geographic spaces, colonial policies, laws, and institutions that connect them from the vantage point of those most engaged by the process: political actors, party activists, jurists, diplomats, philosophers, and international representatives from the Middle East, South Asia, and beyond. Additionally, the volume investigates some of the underlying causes of partition in both places such as the hardening of religious fault-lines, majoritarian politics, and the failure to construct viable forms of government in deeply divided societies.Trade Review'This fascinating essay collection offers systematic analysis of partition in India and Palestine as processes connected through supranational politics, international law, and transnational networks. Thought provoking, often harrowing and always original, the essays collected here make essential reading for anyone interested in where partitions fit within global decolonisation.' Martin Thomas, University of Exeter'An expert team of authors assembled by Victor Kattan and Amit Rajan have produced an original book on the momentous years of 1947 and 1948 in the Indian subcontinent and Palestine. By showing how partition failed to resolve the nationality ‘problems’ it was designed to solve, the multi-scalar analyses in The breakup of India and Palestine demonstrate how the seeds were sown for the illiberal majoritarian democracies there today. A brilliant achievement.' A. Dirk Moses, Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at the Colin Powell School for Civic and International Leadership at the City College of New York, CUNY -- .Table of ContentsForeword by Lucy ChesterAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Connecting the partitions of India and Palestine: institutions, policies, laws and people – Victor Kattan and Amit RanjanPart I The partition of British India1 The Mountbatten Viceroyalty reconsidered: personality, prestige and strategic vision in the partition of India – Ian Talbot2 The paradigmatic partition? The Pakistan demand revisited – Ayesha JalalPart II The partition of Palestine3 Partition and the question of international governance: the 1947 United Nations Special Committee on Palestine – Laura Robson4 Fighting for Palestine as a holy duty? The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and the partition of Palestine in 1947 – Mohamed-Ali AdraouiPart III The partitions of India and Palestine compared5 The communal question and partition in British India and mandate Palestine – Amrita Shodhan6 India’s dilemmas of pragmatism v. principles: Nehru’s preference for a partitioned India but a federal Palestine – P. R. KumaraswamyPart IV The consequences of partition for South Asia, the Middle East and beyond7 The partitions of India and Palestine and the dawn of majority rule in Africa and Asia – Victor Kattan8 ‘Unfinished’ partition: territorial disputes, unequal citizens and the rise of majoritarian nationalism in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh – Amit Ranjan9 Civil war, total war or a war of partition? Reassessing the 1948 war in Palestine from a global perspective – Arie M. Dubnov10 Partitioned identities? Regional, caste and national identity in Pakistan – Iqbal Singh SeveaAfterword: Partition as imperial inheritance – Penny Sinanoglou

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Book SynopsisThis edited collection investigates New Zealand’s history as an imperial power, and its evolving place within the British Empire. It revises and expands the history of empire within, to and from New Zealand by looking at the country’s spheres of internal imperialism, its relationship with Australia, its Pacific empire and its outreach to Antarctica. The book critically revises our understanding of the range of ways that New Zealand has played a role as an imperial power, including the cultural histories of New Zealand inside the British Empire, engagements with imperial practices and notions of imperialism, the special significance of New Zealand in the Pacific region, and the circulation of ideas of empire both through and inside New Zealand over time. The essays in this volume span social, cultural, political and economic history, and in testing the concept of New Zealand's empire, the contributors take new directions in both historiographical and empirical research.Trade Review'At the edge of empire, at "home" with the British or somewhere in the Pacific? Pickles and Coleborne take up the puzzle of New Zealand's Empire with freshness and surprise. Both the questions and answers are new, rewarding readers with an insightful and original excursion.'Charlotte Macdonald, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand‘The book rewards its readers with a series of original, varied, and sometimes intriguing essays into particular dimensions…the editors succeed in their stated aim of opening up discussion as to how New Zealand’s own empire might be conceived.’ Vincent O'Malley, H-Empire July 2016‘Scholars who have been following the historiography of British settler colonialism overthe past few decades can testify to the significant contributions made by historians of New Zealand to thisbody of work. New Zealand’s Empire,though, takes that work in a new and intriguing direction, as it asks questionsabout multiple forms of empire in New Zealand’s history.’Cecilia Morgan, University of Toronto, Australian HistoricalStudies, 48, 2017 -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: New Zealand’s Empire – Katie Pickles and Catharine ColebornePart I: ‘Empire at home’1. Te Karere Maori and the defence of Empire, 1855–60 – Kenton Storey2. An imperial icon Indigenised: the Queen Victoria Memorial at Ohinemutu – Mark Stocker3. ‘Two branches of the brown Polynesians’: ethnographic fieldwork, colonial governmentality and the ‘dance of agency’ – Conal McCarthyPart II: Imperial mobility4. Travelling the Tasman world: travel writing and narratives of transit – Anna Johnston5. Law’s mobility: vagrancy and imperial legality in the trans-Tasman colonial world, 1860s–1914 – Catharine Coleborne6. ‘The World’s Fernery’: New Zealand, fern albums, and nineteenth-century fern fever – Molly DugginsPart III: New Zealand’s Pacific Empire7. From Sudan to Samoa: imperial legacies and cultures in New Zealand’s rule over the Mandated Territory of Western Samoa – Patricia O’Brien 8. ‘Fiji is really the Honolulu of the Dominion’: tourism, empire and New Zealand’s Pacific, c.1900–35 – Frances Steel9. Empire in the eyes of the beholder: New Zealand in the Pacific through French eyes – Adrian Muckle 1900–55 10. War surplus? New Zealand and American children of Indigenous women in Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Tokelau – Judith A. BennettPart IV Inside and outside Empire11. Official occasions and vernacular voices: New Zealand’s British Empire and Commonwealth Games, 1950–90 – Michael Dawson12. Australia as New Zealand’s western frontier, 1965–95 – Rosemary Baird and Philippa Mein Smith13. Southern outreach: New Zealand claims Antarctica from the ‘heroic era’ to the twenty-first century – Katie Pickles14. A radical reinterpretation of New Zealand history: apology, remorse and reconciliation – Giselle ByrnesGlossaryIndex

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Book SynopsisThis international edited volume examines the rise of global Islamophobia in the War on Terror across the global North and South, its impact on Muslims and Muslim communities, and resistance confronting it. -- .

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Book SynopsisDebates about the origins and effects of European rule in the non-European world have animated the field of economic history since the 1850s. This pioneering text provides a concise and accessible resource that introduces key readings, builds connections between ideas and helps students to develop informed views of colonialism as a force in shaping the modern world. With special reference to European colonialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in both Asia and Africa, this book: • critically reviews the literature on colonialism and economic growth; • covers a range of different methods of analysis; • offers a comparative approach, as opposed to a collection of regional histories, deftly weaving together different themes. With debates around globalization, migration, global finance and environmental change intensifying, this authoritative account of the relationship between colonialism and economic development makes an invaluable contribution to several distinct literatures in economic history.Table of ContentsColonial and Indigenous Origins of Comparative Development Origins of Colonialism: Is There One Story? Colonialism as an Agent of Globalization Growth and Development in the Colonies Debates about Costs and Benefits How Colonial States Worked Did Institutions Matter ? Colonialism and the Environment Business and Empires Decolonization and the End of Empire Summary and conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn this powerful and passionate critique of the 'war on terror' in Afghanistan and its extensions into Palestine and Iraq, Derek Gregory traces the long history of British and American involvements in the Middle East and shows how colonial power continues to cast long shadows over our own present. Argues the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11 activated a series of political and cultural responses that were profoundly colonial in nature. The first analysis of the “war on terror” to connect events in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq. Traces the connections between geopolitics and the lives of ordinary people. Richly illustrated and packed with empirical detail. Trade Review“This is a great book. 'Gregory has written a book entwining global geography with social danger. The Colonial Present takes us through the contemporary wars in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories and Iraq as connected projects of imperial ambition... The Colonial Present is a refreshingly angry book, with all the geographical and historical scholarship to buttress its indictment of American, Israeli and British behavior around the world. It is exquisitely written... This book's screaming truths are must-read heresy." Neil Smith, Los Angeles Times "An impassioned plea by one of the world’s most eminent geographers to displace the distorted imaginative geographies that have so corrupted our representations of the Islamic world with a geographical imagination that enlarges and enhances our understandings. The long historical geography of the colonial encounter in the Middle East is here laid bare in all its twisted detail in order to comprehend the fractures underpinning contemporary political impasses in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The Colonial Present is a ‘must read’ for all those concerned for peace and justice in our time.” David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism "The originality and profundity of Derek Gregory's The Colonial Present puts it at the top of my list." Richard Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton; author most recently of The Great Terror War (2003) “Brilliantly condenses the multiple geographies of colonialism ... so that their contemporary entanglements with the flexings of modern imperial power crackle with intensity. Using September 11 2001 as a political fulcrum, Gregory traces the searing effects of fluid but durable cartographies of violence in the intersecting wars in Afghanistan, Palestine, and Iraq.” Cindi Katz, Graduate Centre, CityUniversity of New York “Powerfully and persuasively argued. Passionately written. A daring, brilliant analysis … Quite simply the most significant book written by a geographer in some time.” Allan Pred, University of California, Berkeley “The Colonial Present marshals concepts of imaginative geography and insight from the spatialisation of cultural and social theory developed in the past thirty years … An impassioned but theoretically rich critique of the ‘war on terror’ and the wider Zeitgeist that it shapes and embodies … Crucially, the book is a compelling critique of and American Empire … This is a significant book … Vintage Gregory again; enticing and provoking his audience … There is no doubting that The Colonial Present sets both standards and agendas.” Environment and Planning D "The Colonial Present is an important and politiclly engaged book." AreaTable of ContentsList of Figures xi Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvi 1 The Colonial Present 1 Foucault’s Laughter 1 The Present Tense 5 2 Architectures of Enmity 17 Imaginative Geographies 17 “Why do they hate us?” 20 September 11 24 3 “The Land where Red Tulips Grew” 30 Great Games 30 Uncivil Wars and Transnational Terrorism 36 The Sorcerer’s Apprentices 44 4 “Civilization” and “Barbarism” 47 The Visible and the Invisible 47 Territorialization, Targets, and Technoculture 49 Deadly Messengers 56 Spaces of the Exception 62 Deconstruction 72 5 Barbed Boundaries 76 America’s Israel 76 Diaspora, Dispossession, and Disaster 78 Occupation, Coercion, and Colonization 89 Compliant Cartographies 95 Camp David and Goliath 102 6 Defiled Cities 107 Ground Zeros 107 Besieging Cartographies 117 Identities and Oppositions 138 7 The Tyranny of Strangers 144 “Not as conquerors or enemies . . .” 145 Coups and Conflicts 151 Desert Storms and Urban Nightmares 156 8 Boundless War 180 Black September 180 Killing Grounds 197 The Cutting-Room War 214 9 Gravity’s Rainbows 248 Connective Dissonance 248 The Colonial Present and Cultures of Travel 256 Pandora’s Spaces 258 Notes 263 Guide to Further Reading 352 Index 359

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Book SynopsisBritain yesterday; America today. The reality of being top dog is that everybody hates you. In this provocative book, noted historian and commentator Jeremy Black shows how criticisms of the legacy of the British Empire are, in part, criticisms of the reality of American power today. He emphasizes the prominence of imperial rule in history and in the world today, and the selective way in which certain countries are castigated. Imperial Legacies is a wide-ranging and vigorous assault on political correctness, its language, misuse of the past, and grasping of both present and future.

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Book SynopsisAn incisive and inspiring call to look beyond capitalism to chart a road map for a planet ravaged by pandemics, climate crisis, and wars.Prompted by trenchant questions by international solidarity organizer Frank Barat, renowned author and activist Vijay Prashad shows that the path toward hope and liberation lies in looking closely at myriad, under covered struggles being waged all across the world by workers in countries such as India, Kenya, Peru, Tunisia, and Argentina. A marvelously global but grassroots perspective.Prashad also examines pressing topics such as debt cancellation, a wealth tax, austerity, the pandemic, the arms industry, the climate crisis, socialism, working-class social movements and much more.Trade Review"Vijay Prashad's remarkable work has for years been an incomparable source of information and understanding about the Global South, while also providing incisive analysis of major developments of world affairs." —Noam Chomsky"An essential, brilliant revolutionary post pandemic conversation and primer about everything that matters and how we can move from the devastation of capitalism to a living breathing working socialism. Informative and profoundly inspirational." —V (formerly Eve Ensler), The Vagina Monologues and The Apology"Struggle Makes Us Human is an impassioned and studied case for socialism. In the face of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unrealized promise of the New International Economic Order, and the rupture between intellectual and grounded struggle, socialism remains as necessary and possible as ever. Vijay Prashad takes readers on an intimate journey across the world and through history to introduce us to thinkers, workers, revolutionaries, and martyrs whose example offers glimpses of a horizon that remains within our reach.” —Noura Erakat“Vijay Prashad is our own Frantz Fanon. His writing of protest is always tinged with the beauty of hope.” —Amitava Kumar"Vijay Prashad recalls a past without which it is impossible to understand the present.” —Tariq Ali"Like his hero Eduardo Galeano, Vijay Prashad makes the telling of the truth lovable; not an easy trick to pull off, he does it effortlessly.” —Roger Waters

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Book SynopsisAn argument against the idea of the indigenous chief as a liberal political figure. Across Africa, it is not unusual for proponents of liberal democracy and modernization to make room for some aspects of indigenous culture, such as the use of a chief as a political figure. Yet for Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, no such accommodation should be made. Chiefs, he argues, in this thought-provoking and wide-ranging pamphlet, cannot be liberals—and liberals cannot be chiefs. If we fail to recognize this, we fail to acknowledge the metaphysical underpinnings of modern understandings of freedom and equality, as well as the ways in which African intellectuals can offer a distinctive take on the unfinished business of colonialism.

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Book SynopsisCountry of Poxes is the story of land theft in North America through three diseases: syphilis, smallpox and tuberculosis. These infectious diseases reveal that medical care, widely considered a magnanimous cornerstone of the Canadian state, developed in lockstep with colonial control over Indigenous land and life.Pathogens are storytellers of their time. The 500-year-old debate over the origins of syphilis reflects colonial judgments of morality and sexuality that became formally entwined in medicine. Smallpox is notoriously linked with the project of land theft, as colonizers destroyed Indigenous land, economies and life in the name of disease eradication. And tuberculosis, considered the "Indian disease," aroused intense fear of contagion that launched separate systems of care for Indigenous Peoples in a de facto medical apartheid, while white settlers retreated to sanatoria in the Laurentians and Georgian Bay to be cured. In this immersive and deeply reflective book, physician and activist Dr. Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay provides riveting insights into the biological and social relationships of disease and empire. Country of Poxes considers a future of health in Canada that heeds redress and healing for Nations brutalized by the Canadian state.

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Book SynopsisIn December 1941 the Japanese invaded Burma. For the British, the longest land campaign of the Second World War had begun. 100,000 African soldiers were taken from Britain’s colonies to fight the Japanese in the Burmese jungles. They performed heroically in one of the most brutal theatres of war, yet their contribution has been largely ignored. Isaac Fadoyebo was one of those ‘Burma Boys’. At the age of sixteen he ran away from his Nigerian village to join the British Army. Sent to Burma, he was attacked and left for dead in the jungle by the Japanese. Sheltered by courageous local rice farmers, Isaac spent nine months in hiding before his eventual rescue. He returned to Nigeria a hero, but his story was soon forgotten. Barnaby Phillips travelled to Nigeria and Burma in search of Isaac, the family who saved his life, and the legacy of an Empire. Another Man’s War is Isaac’s story.Trade Review'a heroic tale of survival' * Cotswold Life *'Remarkable...spellbinding' * Mail on Sunday *‘Impressive… Phillips is a confident narrator… a gripping military history which brings African witnesses to the dying days of the British Empire out of the shadows’ * TLS *‘Excellent… such a gripping and valuable contribution to the literature… fascinating’ * African Arguments *‘Two young West African soldiers shipped halfway across the world in 1943 to fight for the British in Burma find themselves abandoned – wounded, starving and sick – in the unmapped jungle of the Arakan. Their astonishing adventures are reconstructed here in gripping detail… A real-life thriller with sobering implications for the British reader – but I found it impossible to put down.’ -- Hilary Spurling, author of Burying the Bones‘Brimming with facts, anecdotes and pathos, this page-turner is a must-read for anyone interested in military history and Nigeria’s transformation in the mid-twentieth century.’ -- Noo Saro-Wiwa, author of Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria‘An enthralling human story of soldiers whose sacrifice has been too long neglected… This book deserves to become a classic of war history.’ -- Fergal Keane, BBC Foreign Correspondent and author of Road of Bones‘The hard-won victories of the Second World War define British identity to an extraordinary degree. Phillips illuminates vividly, through a very human story, how that ostensible struggle between democracy and fascism was experienced and interpreted by a large majority of the world’s population. Another Man’s War admirably complicates and deepens our sense of history.’ -- Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire‘A rich story, richly told. An inspiring instance of common human deceny, handled brilliantly by a writer whose research is as dogged as his touch is fine.’ -- Tim Butcher, author of Blood River and Chasing the Devil‘Another Man’s War is a testament to the kindness of strangers and the power of memory. Meticulous research is matched by profound human emotion.’ -- Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, Channel 4 News‘Barnaby Phillips has uncovered a tale which touches the world in every sense. The story is a deceptively simple one, of a lanky boy who runs away from his dusty Nigerian village to join the British Army and is left for dead thousands of miles from home in the Burmese jungle. The miraculous sheltering and survival of Isaac Fadoyebo not only make an irresistible human drama. They also illustrate the terrifying global swirl of the conflict. Told with warmth and colour, this account of a forgotten soldier in a forgotten army in a forgotten war will not itself be easily forgotten.’ -- Ferdinand Mount, author of The New Few‘Dramatic, moving, often shocking, painstakingly researched and brilliantly told, Another Man’s War is a story the world should hear, not just so that West Africans may know the part they played in the Burma campaign and in the Second World War, but so that Britain and the world knows it too.’ -- Aminatta Forna, author of The Hired Man and The Memory of Love

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Book SynopsisProvides a comprehensive overview of the activities of the British navy in the Indian and Pacific Oceans from the earliest times to the present. This book outlines the early voyages of the English East India Company, its building of its own naval forces and its conflicts with Indian states. It examines the opening up of the Pacific Ocean, the wars with the French in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and the activities of the British navy in the later nineteenth century, both off the coasts of China and Japan, and also in the many other places to which the navy's very great power extended. It goes on to consider the wars of the twentieth century, Britain's withdrawal from east of Suez, and Britain's continuing relative decline. Throughout, the book provides accounts of battles and other actions, and relates the activities of the British navy to the wider political situation and to the activities of other European and Asian navies.Trade ReviewThis is a huge canvas, and John Grainger draws on his considerable experience as a naval author to give the reader an overview and hopefully a stimulus for further research. -- Jon Wise * Warship *Creates an engaging narrative which is far more accessible than older reference volumes that precede this work. In addition to providing a chronology for scholars, it will also prove to be a very enjoyable text for interested non-specialist readers. * INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARITIME HISTORY *This text equips those thinking about the future of the region to understand the strategic advantage that the sea provides. -- Andrew Lambert * THE MARINER'S MIRROR *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The Company and the Bombay Marine 1. The Company's Early Struggles (1600-1625) 2. The Company Survives (1625-1680) 3. Interlopers and Union (1680-1710) 4. Wider Interests, Greater Threats (1710-1750) Part II. The Bombay Marine and the Royal Navy 5. British Dominance Established (1748-1763) 6. The French Threat Continues (1763-1782) 7. The Decisive War (1782-1783) 8. A Ring of Enemies (1783-1803) 9 Destroying all Rivals (1803-1811) Part III: The Royal Navy and the Indian Navy 10. The Company Reduced, its Empire Expanded (1811-1838) 11. Imperial Warfare (1838-1863) 12. The British Lake (1863-1935) 13. A Successful Defence (1935-1945) 14. Imperial Withdrawal (1945 and after) Bibliography

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Book Synopsis'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle AgesFrom the fall of Rome to the rise of the Wild West, David Mountain brings colour and perspective to historical mythmaking.The stories we tell about our past matter. But those stories have been shaped by prejudice, hoaxes and misinterpretations that have whitewashed entire chapters of history, erased women and invented civilisations. Today history is often used to justify xenophobia, nationalism and inequality as we cling to grand origin stories and heroic tales of extraordinary men.Exploring myths, mysteries and misconceptions about the past - from the legacies of figures like Pythagoras and Christopher Columbus, to the realities of life in the gun-toting Wild West, to the archaeological digs that have upset our understanding of the birth of civilisation - David Mountain reveals how ongoing revolutions in history and archaeology are shedding light on the truth.Full of adventures, and based on detailed research and interviews, Past Mistakes will make you reconsider your understanding of history - and of the world today.'Past Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long.' The Tiny ActivistTrade ReviewWhether discussing Pythagoras' legacy, Athenian democracy, the myth of Progress, or the Wild West, Mountain quickly points out how the truth is more nuanced than-or completely different from-stories we may know. ... the work's main thrust is the conversation between present and past and how our view of the past influences current behavior-most clearly outlined in a chapter about the Wild West mythos shaping American gun culture to this day. -- BooklistPast Mistakes takes what we think we remember from history class and sets the record straight! Definitely worth reading if you're ready to have your mind blown and then be filled with rage that you've been hoodwinked for this long. -- The Tiny Activist'A welcome ally in the fight against fake history' -- Eleanor Janega, author of The Middle Ages

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Book SynopsisIf not for the famous Indian mutiny-rebellion of 1857, the Santal 'Hul' (rebellion) of 1855 would today be remembered as the most serious uprising that the East India Company ever faced. Instead, this rebellion-to which 10 per cent of the Bengal Army's infantry was committed and in which at least 10,000 Santals died-has been forgotten. While its memory lived among Santals, British officers published little about it, and most of the sepoys involved died in 1857. In the words of one British officer, the Hul was 'not war ... but execution', and perhaps thus was dismissed as unworthy of attention by military historians. Drawing for the first time on the Bengal officers' voluminous reports on its suppression, Peter Stanley has produced the first comprehensive interpretation of the Hul, investigating why it occurred, how it was fought and why it ended as it did. Despite the Bengal Army virtually inventing counterinsurgency operations in the field (and the Santals improvising their first war), the Hul came to an end amid starvation and disease. But between its bloody outbreak, its protracted suppression and its far-reaching effects, Stanley demonstrates that the Hul was more than just 'execution'-it was indeed a war.Trade Review‘Hul! Hul! provides a unique insight into the oft-overlooked Santal rebellion of 1855… For the first time, the rebellion… has been explored largely through the military records of the East India Company and has thrown new light upon the nature of the tribal uprising.’ -- Frontline'A gripping account of an important episode in India’s colonial history seen from a nuanced military-social perspective. The Hul was overshadowed by the events of the great uprising of 1857 but has finally been resurrected by the chronicler that it deserves.' -- Rana Chhina MBE, Editor, United Service Institution of India (USI) Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research'That Santals stood to be shot every time their drums beat for a Santal is both poignant and chilling, as is this book—the most comprehensive, riveting retelling of the rebellion—a history that continues to inform and define the Santals.' -- Ruby Hembrom, founder and Director of adivaani, and author of Disaibon Hul'A thorough study of the 1855 Santal Rebellion which rocked the Bengal Presidency. Stanley portrays the origin, course and consequences of the Adivasi insurgency and British counterinsurgency based on the British military records. Incisive and thought-provoking.' -- Kaushik Roy, Guru Nanak Chair Professor, Jadavpur University, and Global Fellow, Peace Research Institute Oslo'Lucidly written, imaginatively structured, and richly documented. This fascinating account of the Santal rebellion, which lies at the unusual intersection of Adivasi history and military history, is a must-read for scholars of both these fields.' -- Sangeeta Dasgupta, Associate Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University'Anchored in painstaking research undertaken in archives across several continents, Hul! Hul! is a thoughtful, judiciously balanced and richly textured account of the origins, events and legacies of one of the largest yet hitherto overlooked uprisings against colonial rule in India. A compelling narrative from which students of military history, Indian history and imperial history will all stand to profit.' -- Douglas Peers, Professor of History, University of Waterloo

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Book SynopsisIn a world dominated by the British Empire, and at a time when many Europeans considered black people inferior, Sierra Leonean writer A. B. C. Merriman-Labor claimed his right to describe the world as he found it. He looked at the Empire's great capital and laughed. In this first biography of Merriman-Labor, Danell Jones describes the tragic spiral that pulled him down the social ladder from writer and barrister to munitions worker, from witty observer of the social order to patient in a state-run hospital for the poor. In restoring this extraordinary man to the pantheon of African observers of colonialism, she opens a window onto racial attitudes in Edwardian London. An African in Imperial London is a rich portrait of a great metropolis, writhing its way into a new century of appalling social inequity, world-transforming inventions, and unprecedented demands for civil rights. WINNER OF THE HIGH PLAINS BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTIONTrade Review'A must read.' ‘A brilliant biography . . . [Jones] has given a vivid picture of London one hundred years ago.’ 'An engaging, worthwhile biography. … Jones uncovers the life of a historical ghost, nearly lost to the world' -- Choice‘The richness and wider implications of Merriman-Labor’s life and sojourn in England come out vividly in [this] book because of Jones’ careful research, analytical rigor, and lively writing.’ -- Journal of African History'Written with great verve, An African in Imperial London reconstructs the life of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor... Both he and his biographer provide a rich picture of London, particularly in his most important work... an enlightening account of what it meant to be black in the most powerful country in the world'. -- Peter Stansky'Historical rigour, literary skill and a deep sense of humanity pervades this splendid biography which recovers from the condescension of the past the world of Augustus Merriman-Labor.' -- David Killingray'The moving and surprising story of A.B.C. Merriman-Labor, both insider and outsider in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Africa and England, is also a compelling contemporary parable about the interaction between individuals and society.' -- Edward MendelsonElegantly written and meticulously researched for over seven years, An African in Imperial London presents the life and times of Augustus Merriman-Labor: Sierra Leonean writer, barrister, munitions worker during the First World War, and much more besides. This is an important addition to the history of Africans in Britain.' -- Hakim Adi

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Book SynopsisThe 2020 toppling of slave-trader Edward Colston's statue by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol was a dramatic reminder of Britain's role in trans-Atlantic slavery, too often overlooked. Yet the legacy of that predatory economy reaches far beyond bronze memorials; it continues to shape the entire visual fabric of the country. Architect Victoria Perry explores the relationship between the wealth of slave-owning elites and the architecture and landscapes of Georgian Britain. She reveals how profits from Caribbean sugar plantations fed the opulence of stately homes and landscape gardens. Trade in slaves and slave-grown products also boosted the prosperity of ports like Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow, shifting cultural influence towards the Atlantic west. New artistic centres like Bath emerged, while investment in poor, remote areas of Wales, Cumbria and Scotland led to their 're-imagining' as tourist destinations: Snowdonia, the Lakes and the Highlands. The patronage of absentee planters popularised British ideas of 'natural scenery'--viewing mountains, rivers and rocks as landscape art--and then exported the concept of 'sublime and picturesque' landscapes across the Atlantic. A Bittersweet Heritage unearths the slavery-tainted history of Britain's manors, ports, roads and countryside, and powerfully explains what this legacy means today.Trade Review''A Bittersweet Heritage' illuminates how Caribbean profits shaped not only family trees, but the planting and painting of Britain's landscape--and the mansions erected thereon.' -- Church Times'An impressive, highly readable, and beautifully illustrated book.' -- The Round Table'[A] fine, well-illustrated work of (often painful) history.' -- Context'An important and engrossing contribution to the history of Britain's place in the global slave trade, and how it shaped our urban and rural, domestic and civic fabric. Perry successfully charts this brutal past and reminds us all of how its everyday legacies continue today.' -- Tristram Hunt, historian, former MP and Director, Victoria and Albert Museum'This book showing how profits from Black slavery helped to transform Britain's architecture and landscapes gripped me from beginning to end. Enhanced by a lucid and accessible prose style together with many fascinating images, it most certainly deserves a very wide readership.' -- Sir Tom Devine, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh, and editor of 'Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past: The Caribbean Connection''This is a scholarly and timely history of great country seats created from the profits of plantation slavery. It is a fascinating story of how the political, cultural, social and economic milieu both shaped their history and informs our present.' -- Simon Allford, President of the Royal Institute of British Architects'This book is eye-opening. From her essay in the renowned volume Slavery and the British Country House to this magnificent new study, Victoria Perry continues to illuminate the myriad--and surprising--architectural, rural and cultural legacies of Britain's slavery business.' -- Corinne Fowler, Professor of Postcolonial Literature, University of Leicester'A captivating if uncomfortable account of the connections – strategic and individual – between the trans-Atlantic slave trade and Britain's built and natural heritage. The design ideals of this cruel historic period have been successfully buried for generations, but Perry's meticulous research and excellent storytelling bring them to new audiences.' -- Louise Thomas, Director, Historic Towns & Villages Forum

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Book SynopsisThe historiography of modern India is largely a pageant of presumed virtues: harmonious territorial unity, religious impartiality, the miraculous survival of electoral norms in the world's most populous democracy. Even critics of injustices within Indian society still underwrite such claims. But how well does the 'Idea of India' correspond to the realities of the Union?In an iconoclastic intervention, Marxist historian Perry Anderson provides an unforgettable reading of the Subcontinent's passage through Independence and the catastrophe of Partition, the idiosyncratic and corrosive vanities of Gandhi and Nehru, and the close interrelationship of Indian democracy and caste inequality. The Indian Ideology caused uproar on first publication in 2012, not least for breaking with euphemisms for Delhi's occupation of Kashmir. This new, expanded edition includes the author's reply to his critics, an interview with the late Praful Bidwai of the Indian weekly Outlook, and a postscript on India under the rule of Narendra Modi. Anderson considers whether his regime is as much of a break with the practices and thought processes of Congress rule as is generally supposed.Trade ReviewA magnificent achievement. It is a product of his ability, near-unique in today's world of ideas, to distill a country's history and politics into a few thousand words that are at once combative and informative * Business Standard, New Delhi *Anderson's scepticism towards India's claim to be a postcolonial democracy uniquely untainted by repression, emergency powers and other dark arts of territorial "unity" is timely -- Maria Misra * Prospect *Perry Anderson brings together a set of arguments that will be received with disquiet by the scholars and ideologues who have constructed a celebratory, self-righteous consensus about the Indian Republic. Instead of writing off the unspeakable violence and egregious injustice in our society as aberrations in an otherwise successful model, Anderson points to serious structural flaws and the deep seated social prejudices of those who have administered the Indian State in the decades since Independence. It is important to read this book seriously, with equanimity and an open mind, instead of flinching and turning away from it -- Arundhati RoyWell sourced and artfully crafted, offering a comprehensive history of India's ideology -- Yahya Chaudhry * Jacobin *Anderson is unanswerable when he points to a consistent Indian pattern of silence, evasion, and distortion about India's military occupation of Kashmir and its attendant regime of extrajudicial execution, torture, and detention. Many readers will be struck by the evidence Anderson adduces of the insidious dominance of upper-caste Hindus in every realm of social and political life and by his portrait of the primordial politics of caste and religion, which have enshrined a patrimonial state built on nepotism and dynasty worship. Admirers of Gandhi and Nehru will encounter many awkward facts, especially regarding their roles in the partition of India, a calamity usually blamed on British colonial administrators and Indian Muslim leaders -- Pankaj Mishra * Foreign Affairs *Exposes some substantial faultlines in recent Indian writing about India and with some justice questions the emerging consensus around India's democratic successes -- David Arnold * Times Literary Supplement *With his sharp and lucid prose, Anderson strips away many of the liberal myths surrounding Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Indian democracy itself. His incisive insights, his sweeping vision, his invocation of telling detail are all here in full measure -- Ravi Palat * Critical Asian Studies *

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Book SynopsisThis book brings together 11 prominent scholars and political activists to discuss and explore issues around postcolonialism, decoloniality, Theories of the South and Epistemologies of the South. These wide-ranging discussions touch upon issues from academic research methods and writing conventions to global struggles for justice. Together the chapters, as well as the interventions from forum participants which are characteristic of this series, paint a complex and dynamic picture of areas of thought and action that are constantly evolving in response to the demands of a world in flux. The book is a major intervention in current debates about the geopolitics of knowledge, as well as an illustration of the ways in which scholarship in the Global North(s) is indebted to the diverse traditions of scholarship in the Global South(s).Trade ReviewIt is a true pleasure to (re)encounter some of the wise elders (if I may) of the contemporary global struggles against the racist, colonial, patriarchal and capitalist death project. This volume attests to the creativity, tenacity and longevity of such powerful struggles and is a wonderful gift to all, including those who are about to join. * Julia Suárez Krabbe, Roskilde University, Denmark *For applied linguists who are looking to explore Southern epistemologies and decolonial scholarship, there are few better starting points than this book. The volume brings together some of the most prominent scholars in Southern epistemologies and engages them in conversation, helping readers understand key points of convergence and divergence. If you’ve been wanting to learn more about Southern perspectives but weren’t sure where to start, this is the book for you! * Alissa J. Hartig, Portland State University, USA *The volume is a unique collection of discussions with leading scholars and political activists concerned with decoloniality, Theories of the South and related fields. It is designed to allow the contributors to tease out the weaknesses and strengths of the concepts, thereby providing nuanced insights. This publication is essential reading for academics, students, and political activists in these fields globally. * Felix Banda, University of the Western Cape, South Africa *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments and Gratitude Foreword Chapter 1. Sinfree Makoni, Anna Kaiper-Marquez and Bassey Antia: Introduction Chapter 2. Jean Comaroff: Theory from the South: Thinking Out Loud About Decolonization Chapter 3. Boaventura de Sousa Santos: Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide Chapter 4. Molefi Kete Asante: Upending the Inhuman: Decoloniality, Postmodernism and Afrocentricity Chapter 5. Ngũgĩ wa Thiongo: The Politics of Language, Memory and Knowledge Chapter 6. Drucilla Cornell and Souleymane Bachir Diagne: uBuntu, Nite and the Struggle for Global Justice Chapter 7. Catherine Walsh and Walter Mignolo: Foundational Concepts and Struggles for Dignity and Life Chapter 8. Linda Tuhiwai Smith: Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples Clarissa Jordao: Epilogue: The South Writing Back Index

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Book SynopsisIn 1912, Rash Behari Bose made his dramatic entrance into India's anti-colonial freedom movement when he orchestrated a bomb attack against the British Viceroy during a public procession in Delhi. Forced to flee his homeland, Bose settled in Japan, becoming the most influential Indian in Tokyo and earning the affectionate title 'Sensei' among Japanese youth, military personnel and far-right ultranationalists. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Bose remained a perpetual thorn in the side of the British Empire as he built and maintained a global network of anti-colonialists, radicals, smugglers and intellectuals. After siding with Imperial Japan against his British adversaries during the Second World War, Bose died in 1945--just two years before India gained its independence. A complex, controversial and often contradictory figure, Bose has been described as a committed democrat, an authoritarian, an advocate of religious harmony, a Hindu chauvinist, an anti-Communist, a political pragmatist, an idealist, a Japanese collaborator, an anti-racist, a cultural conservative, a Pan-Asianist, an Indian nationalist, and much more besides. Drawing on extensive archival research in India, Japan and the UK, this refreshing new biography brings to life the largely forgotten story of one of twentieth-century Asia's most daring revolutionaries.Trade Review'Relocates Rash Behari Bose’s place in modern Indian history.' -- The Times of India'An intriguing account of a forgotten but significant figure in the annals of anticolonialism.' -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of 'Insurgent Empire''Rash Behari Bose is a key figure among Indian "expatriate patriots", and, like many of his contemporaries, defies easy political categorisation. Well-written, fast-paced, and filled with remarkable events, "Fugitive of Empire" is a compelling story.' -- Carolien Stolte, Assistant Professor, University of Leiden, and author of 'The League Against Imperialism''McQuade's meticulously researched biography of Rash Behari Bose reveals the multifaceted nature of anti-colonialism in the first half of the twentieth century. An original and captivating read, connecting waves of revolutionary movements, it fills a major gap in global historiography.' -- Ole Birk Laursen, Researcher, Lund University, and author of 'Anarchy or Chaos: M. P. T. Acharya and the Indian Struggle for Freedom''McQuade's evocative account of Rash Behari Bose reads like a novel, taking us through some of the most dramatic moments of India's struggle for independence and revealing the global dimensions of anti-colonialism during the first half of the twentieth century.' -- Kim A. Wagner, Professor of Global and Imperial History, Queen Mary, University of London, and author of 'The Skull of Alum Bheg' and 'Amritsar 1919'

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Book Synopsis Drawing on previously inaccessible and overlooked archival sources, The Herero Genocide undertakes a groundbreaking investigation into the war between colonizer and colonized in what was formerly German South-West Africa and is today the nation of Namibia. In addition to its eye-opening depictions of the starvation, disease, mass captivity, and other atrocities suffered by the Herero, it reaches surprising conclusions about the nature of imperial dominion, showing how the colonial state’s genocidal posture arose from its own inherent weakness and military failures. The result is an indispensable account of a genocide that has been neglected for too long.Trade Review “The author impressively demonstrates that emotions can be the driving force behind cruelty and is able to portray the brutalization of ordinary soldiers, who ultimately also became ‘motor[s] of extermination,’ more clearly than previous studies have done. Fear, bitterness, and frustration in the face of military failures led to violence…Häussler’s work is an innovative, at times brilliant study that deserves a wide readership – hopefully, and thanks to the translation, now also in English-speaking countries.” • Central European History Praise for the German edition: “Matthias Häussler has produced a complex and highly compelling account of the unfolding of mass violence in German South-West Africa. His book includes a range of sources which other historians have largely neglected … or been unable to access.” • Journal of Namibian Studies “Häussler deals less with the causes of violence or possible racist program of extermination than with the conditions, factors and dynamics of a radicalization that ultimately led to genocide. In his differentiated analysis he is aided by a profound knowledge of the sources, materials from state, church and private archives in Germany.” • Historische Zeitschrift “This book was overdue. [… Häussler] successfully endeavors to expand the collection of sources on the history of this genocide, drawing not only on German administrative files but also on British traditions and a large number of private estates” • Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift “This study encourages further research on the relationship between emotion, racism, and the release of violence and is recommended to all those who are interested in processes of unrestricted violence in general or the war in German South West Africa in particular.” • H-Soz-Kult “Häussler shines with an innovative study …The book is recommended not only to all those who are committed to dealing appropriately with the Namibian-German past, but also to those who are directly involved in the ongoing bilateral negotiations between Germany and Namibia.” • The NamibianTable of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Settlers, Herero, and the Spiral of Violence Chapter 2. The Strategic Horizon: Leutwein – Metropole – Trotha Chapter 3. The Campaign Chapter 4. Small Warfare and Brutalization Chapter 5. From the Regime of the Camps to “Native Policy” Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisInspired by decolonial thinking, this book challenges romantic images of Y Wladfa, the Welsh Patagonian settlement founded in 1865. Drawing on archival sources written in Spanish, Welsh and English, it exposes the complex human relationships of this settler colony, and in particular disrupts the myth of WelshIndigenous friendship by foregrounding Indigenous experience and revealing less familiar accounts in the record. A newly-developed framework applies three logics possession, racialization/barbarisation, and assimilation to make sense of settler colonialism in Patagonia and to debate Wales's complex position as both colonised and coloniser. A new analysis of contemporary cultural products (television, film, textbooks) further demonstrates how the romantic view continues to shape racial stereotypes today, concluding that such settler origin countries as Wales are vital sites of decolonial debate.

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Book SynopsisMaking the Revolution Global shows how black radicals transformed socialist politics in Britain in the years before decolonisation. African and Caribbean activist-intellectuals, such as Amy Ashwood Garvey, C.L.R. James, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore, came to Britain during the 1930s and 1940s and intervened in debates about capitalism, imperialism, fascism and war. They consistently argued that any path towards international socialism must have colonial liberation at its heart. Although their ideas were met with opposition from many on the British Left, they convinced significant sections of the movement of the revolutionary potential of colonised peoples. By centring the entanglements between black radicals and the wider British socialist movement, Theo Williams casts new light on responses to the 1935 Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the 1945 Fifth Pan-African Congress, and a wealth of other events and phenomena. In doing so, he showcases a revolutionary tradition that, as illustrated by the global Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020, is still relevant today.Trade ReviewTheo Williams authoritatively details how Black militant Pan-Africanist radicals in Britain around George Padmore not only fought for colonial liberation in Africa and the Caribbean during the 1930s and 1940s but also worked with the Independent Labour Party led by Fenner Brockway to help change the way half the British Left thought about racism and imperialism. This very impressive organisational history of the International African Service Bureau thus illuminates the wider relationship of socialism to black liberation in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, and so represents an invaluable contribution to scholarship on 'the red and the black'. -- Christian HogsbjergA fine, nuanced study of Black radical contributions to critical debates within the U.K, Europe, Africa and the colonies about the interplay of capitalism, fascism, and imperialism. Williams's exceptional archival research is matched by a dogged commitment to recovering the lives and work of key figures like George Padmore and C.L.R. James. This book gives fresh perspective to the 20th century European Left, and helps to decolonize the study of global radicalism. -- Bill V. Mullen, Emeritus Professor of American Studies, Purdue UniversityA timely book which sparkles with fresh ideas. In his accommodating prose Williams shows how the native traditions of British socialism and diasporic Pan-Africanisms coexisted in a jarring but constant dialogue. He brings to light the buried pas de deux which reveals each to have been in the other. This is a history in which every moment resonates for the present.. -- Bill SchwarzWilliams' account throws more light on a story that has yet to be told in its entirety - how campaigners across race lines worked together to contribute to the great world-shaping movements towards decolonisation and liberation. This is a serious and worthwhile addition to scholarship on internationalism. -- Priyamvada GopalMaking the Revolution Global powerfully recasts the story of interwar Black British radicalism, illustrating the ways anti-imperialism and pan-Africanism shaped British socialism. This timely, rich and layered account demonstrates that anti-racism and anti-imperialism were not marginal to the metropolitan left, but instead constituted key axes of debate and contestation among British socialists. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-DeterminaitonThis very thoroughly researched book is an exploration of the political attitudes/policies of left-wing political parties (and then even the Labour Party) regarding imperialism, colonialism and independence in the UK. It investigates the relationships between Black activists - individuals and organisations - and these political parties. After all, 'imperialism was central to capitalism', which explains why some/many want to retain the colonies. And what was the effect on them all? So a vast amount of information on George Padmore, Makonnen, C.L.R.James, Chris Jones, et al, including women activists. And just as much on the organisations they set up/were involved with eg IASB, Pan-African Federation, Negro Welfare Association. It ends with an analysis of their influence on returning African leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. -- Marika SherwoodFascinating and revealing -- Neil Rogall * rs21 *

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Book SynopsisThe NATO occupation of Afghanistan is over, and a balance-sheet can be drawn. These essays on war and peace in the region reveal Tariq Ali at his sharpest and most prescient.Rarely has there been such an enthusiastic display of international unity as that which greeted the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Compared to Iraq, Afghanistan became the 'good war.' But a stalemate ensued, and the Taliban waited out the NATO contingents. Today, with the collapse of the puppet regime in Kabul, what does the future hold for a traumatised Afghan people? Will China become the dominant influence in the country? Tariq Ali has been following the wars on Afghanistan for forty years. He opposed Soviet military intervention in 1979, predicting disaster. He was also a fierce critic of its NATO sequel, 'Operation Enduring Freedom'. In a series of trenchant commentaries, he described the tragedies inflicted on Afghanistan, as well as the semi-Talibanisation and militarisation of neighbouring Pakistan. Most of his predictions proved accurate. The Forty Year War in Afghanistan brings together the best of his writings and includes a new introduction.Trade ReviewPraise for The Duel: 'Ali's discussion of Afghanistan is highly valuable because of the questions it raises . a starting point for a much-needed debate.' -- Ray Bonner * New York Times *Praise for The Extreme Centre: "The typical Financial Times reader might find his bias so irksome they cannot continue. This would be a pity." * Financial Times *Evergreen ... Ali has argued against each occupation from its beginning; the result is an embittered, haunting refrain. -- Eileen Gonzalez * Foreword Reviews *A key contribution to make sense of the decades-long events that culminated in the chaotic scenes at Kabul's airport in August 2021. -- Marc Martorell Junyent * Inside Arabia *Erudite and committed ... This collection is indispensable for forming an understanding of what has happened and why. -- Andrew Murray * Morning Star *No one, Left or Right, has followed the misadventure of US policy in Afghanistan with such dogged attention and keen insight. -- Paul Buhle * Counterpunch *Unlike pro-interventionist liberal and even conservative interpretations of Afghanistan's recent history, Ali's anti-imperialist understanding provides the glue that binds the bloody tale together. -- Ron Jacobs * Counterpunch *Brilliant and incisive ... a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the causes and consequences of the decades-long turmoil in Afghanistan. -- N.P. Ullekh * Open the Magazine *Witty, insightful, and full of detail ... a book replete with encounters and anecdotes, evocative descriptions, and a brutal honesty about the corrupting power of war. -- Terina Hine * Counterfire *

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Book SynopsisColonial Countryside is a book of commissioned poems and short stories produced by ten global majority writers featuring National Trust houses with significant colonial histories. This includes properties whose owners engaged in the slavery business, in colonial administration or who were involved with the East India Company or British rule in India. Historians have accompanied these pieces with commentaries detailing the evidence upon which each creative commission was based. The book ends with a photo essay by the project’s commissioned photographer, Ingrid Pollard, the Turner Prize shortlisted artist who has pioneered critical interventions into the supposed whiteness of the British countryside. Peter Kalu’s story gives an account of Richard Watt of Speke Hall reflecting on his Jamaican experiences; Karen Onojaife’s story is set in Charlecote Park where a once-favoured Black page finds himself cut adrift; Jacqueline Crooks’ magical realist tale brings together an abused Indian princess and enslaved African employed in the mahogany trade; Ayanna Lloyd Banwo has written about Diego, the Spanish-speaking African who became Drake’s closest confidante; Masuda Snaith’s short story cycle tracks the cross-currents of empire across Lord Curzon’s Kedleston Hall; Maria Thomas’s account of Penrhyn Castle links past and present. It is a gothic tale of history biting back. Malachi’s story features a young Black man who dates a white girl with a taste for country house visiting, including Calke Abbey. Other contributions include poetic meditations on artefacts to be found in country houses. Hannah Lowe reflects on the taste for Chinoiserie, Seni Seneviratne gives voice to the enslaved children trapped within the frames of 18 th century art and Andre Bagoo makes connections between William Blathwayt of Dyrham Park and two stands featuring kneeling African men, brought to the house by his uncle in the seventeenth century.

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Book SynopsisA revealing picture of a time when Britain was losing its empire. It draws on letters written at the period by an airman, his vivid memories and experiences from the Canal Zone, Kenya during Mau Mau times, Cyprus and Jerusalem. His time encompassed conducting church services, being shipwrecked, numerous wildlife encounters and the formation of many lifelong friendships. The Canal Zone was no easy life and 50 years later a medal was awarded when the government was forced to admit it was deserved and to confess its own political chicanery in the events. Hamish paints a picture of the highs and lows of RAF life, a station being run down in Egypt, working in oppressive heat and now and then being shot at! He saw the Windrush a week before it exploded and sank in the Mediterranean; both the Windrush story and that of building the Suez Canal are detailed in an appendix. There is much to find in this story including background histories to events and the politics of the time. As a whole it provides a fascinating account of the era.

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Book SynopsisOver the last seven hundred years the United Kingdom has acquired a staggering array of treasures as a direct result of its military activities – from Joan of Arc’s ring to the Rock of Gibraltar to Hitler’s desk. Spoils of War describes these spoils and how they came to be acquired as well as telling the tales of some of the extraordinary (and extraordinarily incompetent) men and women, now mostly forgotten, who had a hand in the rise and fall of the British Empire. Along the way the book debunks a significant number of myths, exposes a major fraud perpetrated on a leading London museum, reveals previously unknown spoils of war and casts light on some very dark corners of Britain’s military history.Trade Review“Christopher Joll’s original and entertaining book focuses on some of the remarkable spoils of war seized during the age of empire by British soldiers, sailors and airmen. Each of these tangible trophies of victory, ranging from the priceless to the valueless, has a story which Joll recounts, and sometimes debunks, with style, humour and insight.” Michael Portillo (broadcaster and former Secretary of State for Defence)Table of ContentsForeword by the Duke of Wellington. Introduction. THE CAMPAIGNS: 1. Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453). 2. English Civil War (1642–1651) . 3. War Of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). 4. Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). 5. American War of Independence (1775–1783). 6. Anglo-French War (1778–1783). 7. French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). 8. Fourth Anglo-Mysore War (1798–1799). 9. War of the Third Coalition (1805). 10. West Indies Campaign (1804–1810). 11. Peninsular War (1807–1814). 12. Retreat from Moscow (1812). 13. British-American War of 1812 (1812–1815). 14. The 100 Days (1815). 15. First Anglo-Ashanti War (1823–1831). 16. Sindh Campaign (1843). 17. Crimean War (1853–1856). 18. Indian Mutiny (1857–1858). 19. Second Opium War (1856–1860). 20. Abyssinia Expedition (1867–1868). 21. Third Anglo-Ashanti War (1873–1874). 22. Anglo-Zulu War (1879). 23. Urabi Revolt (1879–1882). 24. Mahdist War (1881–1899). 25. Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885). 26. Boxer Rebellion & The Siege of Peking (1889–1901). 27. Second Boer War (1899–1902). 28. First World War (1914–1918). 29. Second World War (1939–1945). 30. Malayan Emergency (1948–1960). 31. Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation (1962–1966). 32. The Troubles, Ulster (1968–1998). 33. Falklands War (1982). About the author. Appendices. 1. Styles, titles, honorifics and regimental names. 2. Principal British campaigns. 3. Prize law, prize money and.prize auctions. 4. Sources and locations. Acknowledgements.

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Book SynopsisIn 50 Things About Us, Mark Thomas combines his trademark mix of storytelling, stand-up, mischief and really, really well-researched material to examine how we have come to inhabit this divided wasteland that some of us call the United Kingdom. Based on his latest show, 50 Things About Us, Mark picks through the myths, historical facts and current figures of our national identities to ask: who do we think we are?

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Book SynopsisIn her captivating memoir Through the Leopard's Gaze, Njambi McGrath details the harrowing circumstances of her life as a young girl in Kenya, who one fateful night was beaten to a pulp and left for dead. Thirteen-year-old Njambi, fearing her assailant would return to finish her, courageously escaped, walking through the night in the Kenyan countryside, risking wild animals, robbers and murderers, before being picked up by two shabbily dressed but safe men. She buries the memories of that fateful day and night, and years later ends up in London with a British husband and children. Then one day a simple unassuming wedding invitation arrives in her mailbox causing her to have to confront the remnants of a past she had thought was behind her.This is a book about survival, and courage when all else fails. It's a searingly honest examination of human cruelty and strength in equal measure.Trade ReviewImportant voice * The Times *Deliciously tart lines * Evening Standard *Compelling rarely heard perspective * FESTMAG *Cutting edge confident comedian * FRINGEREVIEW *A must see * The Scotsman *Trail blazing * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisVolume IV in the Penang Chronicles continues the story of Penang founder Francis Light's family, including his son William Light who went on to. establish the city of Adelaide in Australia.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book explores the role of religion in England's overseas companies and the formation of English governmental identity abroad in the seventeenth century. Drawing on research into the Virginia, East India, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New England and Levant Companies, it offers a comparative global assessment of the inextricable links between the formation of English overseas government and various models of religious governance across England's emerging colonial empire. While these approaches to governance varied from company to company, each sought to regulate the behaviour of their personnel, as well as the numerous communities and faiths which fell within their jurisdiction. This book provides a crucial reassessment of the seventeenth-century foundations of British imperial governance.Table of Contents1. Introduction: Introduction: ‘A Just Government’: Empire, Religion, Chaplains and the Corporation .- 2. The Virginia Company and the Foundations of Religious Governance in English Commercial Expansion .- 3. The Plymouth Company and Massachusetts Bay Company (1622–1639): Establishing Theocratic Corporate Governance .- 4. Apostasy and Debauchery (1601–1660): Behaviour, Passive Evangelism and the East India and Levant Company Chaplains .- 5. The Massachusetts Bay Company and New England Company (1640–1684): Exportation, Revaluation and the Demise of Corporate Theocratic Governance .- 6. The East India Company (1661–1698): Territorial Acquisition and the ‘Amsterdam of Liberty’ .- 7. Conclusion .- 8. Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the Danish Empire, which for over four hundred years stretched from Northern Norway to Hamburg and was feared by small German principalities to the South. Evolving over time, it has included most of Scandinavia and the North Atlantic, has shifted from a Western orientation under the Vikings to an Eastern one in the Middle Ages, and from a North Sea Empire to a Baltic Empire. From the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, it comprised small overseas colonies in India, Africa and the Caribbean. Exploring the rise and fall of Denmark's Kingdom, from 9 AD to the present, this textbook considers how such vast empires were kept together through ideology and symbols, military force, transport systems and networks of civil servants. The authors demonstrate how the lands under Danish rule included a variety of religious groups, social and economic structures, law systems, and ethnic and linguistic groups. They also consider the economic and ideological benefit of an empire structure in comparison to a nation state. Providing a detailed overview of the long history of the Danish Empire, whilst also confronting current debate and providing novel interpretations, this book offers an original, imperial and multi-territorial perspective on the history of the Danish state, providing essential reading for students of Danish or Scandinavian history and European or Global empires. Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. The Empire in Himlingøje3. The Christian Empire of the North Sea4. Crusade Empires in the Baltic5. The Union Empire6. The Princely State: The Decline of Baltic Power 1536-17207. From the Conglomerate state to the Unitary State 1720-18148. 1814-64: From United Monarchy to Nation-State9. The Empire After 186410. The Empire during the Cold War, International Integration, and the Welfare State11. The Danish Empire Through the Ages12. The Danish Legacy

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Book SynopsisIn Masters and Servants, Scott P. Stephen reveals startling truths about Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) workers. Rather than dedicating themselves body and soul to the Company’s interests, these men were hired like domestic servants, joining a “household” with its attendant norms of duty and loyalty. The household system produced a remarkably stable political-economic entity, connecting early North American resource extraction to larger trends in British imperialism. Through painstaking research, Stephen shines welcome light on the lives of these largely overlooked individuals. An essential book for labour historians, Masters and Servants will appeal to scholars of early modern Britain, the North American fur trade, Western social history, business history, and anyone intrigued by the reach of the HBC.Trade Review"Blacksmiths, bookkeepers, loggers, tanners, coopers, cooks, sail-makers, interpreters, surveyors, clergy, the list goes on as Stephen marches us through the lives of the early Hudson’s Bay worker. Some were unscrupulous fortune hunters. Some chose to abandon families in England and travel thousands of miles to seek their livelihood in furs…. We also read stories of belligerence, arson, thievery, and murder…. Everything is thoroughly documented using the Company’s voluminous archive." [Full review at https://ormsbyreview.com/2020/10/06/937-verzuh-stephen-hbc-workforce/] -- Ron Verzuh * The Ormsby Review *"[Masters and Servants] is an important and valuable contribution. Stephen has opened a new window into early HBC history, while revealing some of the good, some of the bad, and some of the ugly of a legendary institution.” [Full article at https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2020/04/the-human-factor/] -- Michael Taube, Literary Review of Canada, April 2020"In sum, this is an important publication that will be of interest to labour historians as well as scholars of the North American fur trade and early modern Britain." -- Scott Berthelette, Labour/Le Travail 86, Winter 2020"Overall, the book reflects the work of a historian comfortable with the hard work of archival research and with an eye for detail and insightful quotations. In many respects, it does for Hudson’s Bay Company employees what Carolyn Podruchny’s Making the Voyageur World did for employees of the Montreal-based fur trade companies in recreating their values, worldview, and distinctive work environment." -- Michael Payne * Prairie History *"HBC posts were really an extension of early modern Britain, Stephen argues, and are best understood as microcosms of that strictly hierarchical society.... Stephen is a master of the vast documentary resources found in the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, and he makes rich use of this material to make his point." [Full review at https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/books/masters-and-servants] -- Bill Moreau * Canada's History, February-March 2021 *"This is a richly textured and deeply researched work. It tells us much about how the HBC fits into the larger British Atlantic world, and how its masters and servants constituted new communities out on the edge of empire.... This will be a 'must read' for anyone involved in fur trade studies." [Full review at: DOI: 10.1080/02722011.2020.1852744] -- Jim Mochoruk * American Review of Canadian Studies, 50:4 *"Stephen’s emphasis on the familial and negotiated nature of the post community is the book’s most important historiographical contribution. His analysis upends older Marxist-informed studies of labour in the fur trade that tended to highlight the classed and ranked nature of the posts." -- Tolly Bradford, Histoire sociale / Social History, November 2021"This study will be invaluable to those interested in the activities and ideals that underpinned long-distance trading companies in the British Atlantic world, and those interested in the experiences and expectations of early modern service. The originality of this study comes from its focus on understanding the internal relationships within the HBC between employers and employees, specifically looking at three groups: the London-based Committee, and in the Bay, the company’s masters (factors) of factories, and the servants who worked in them..." -- Eleanor Bird, British Journal of Canadian Studies, Autumn 2021Table of ContentsEditorial Note Acknowledgements Introduction Abbreviations 1 | Early Modern Contexts 2 | The Hudson’s Bay Company as Enterprise and Employer | 1668–1786 3 | “No Certain Method for Any Thing” | Recruitment, 1670–1713 4 | “Men to Do the Business” | Recruitment, 1714–1786 5 | “Diligent Men” and “Idle Fellowes” | Evaluation and Retention of Personnel 6 | The Inland Experience 7 | Master-Servant Relationships 8 | Tensions within the Household Model Conclusion Appendix Choosing Our Words Carefully Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhile industrial states competed to colonize Asia and Africa in the nineteenth century, conversion to Christianity was replaced by a civilizing mission. This new secular impetus strode hand in hand with racial capitalism in the age of empires: a terrestrial paradise was to be achieved through accumulation and the ravaging of nature.Far from a defence of religion, The States of the Earth argues that phenomena such as evangelism and political Islam are best understood as products of empire and secularization. In a world where material technology was considered divine, religious and secular forces both tried to achieve Heaven on Earth by destroying Earth itself.

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Book SynopsisThe forgotten history of women slaves and their struggle for liberation.Enslaved West Indian women had few opportunities to record their stories for posterity. In this riveting work of historical reclamation, Stella Dadzie recovers the lives of women who played a vital role in developing a culture of slave resistance across the Caribbean.Dadzie follows a savage trail from Elmina Castle in Ghana and the horrors of the Middle Passage, as slaves were transported across the Atlantic, to the sugar plantations of Jamaica and beyond. She reveals women who were central to slave rebellions and liberation. There are African queens, such as Amina, who led a 20,000-strong army. There is Mary Prince, sold at twelve years old, never to see her sisters or mother again. Asante Nanny the Maroon, the legendary obeah sorceress, who guided the rebel forces in the Blue Mountains during the First Maroon War.Whether responding to the horrendous conditions of plantation life, the sadistic vagaries of their captors or the 'peculiar burdens of their sex', their collective sanity relied on a highly subversive adaptation of the values and cultures they smuggled from their lost homes. By sustaining or adapting remembered cultural practices, they ensured that the lives of chattel slaves retained both meaning and purpose. A Kick in the Belly makes clear that subtle acts of insubordination and conscious acts of rebellion came to undermine the very fabric of West Indian slavery.Trade ReviewShocking, enlightening, fascinating, challenging, A Kick in the Belly reframes the overwhelmingly male perspective on the transatlantic slave trade through female experiences and acts of resistance. It is a essential corrective to centuries of sublimation and the presentation of black women who lived through this history as passive victims. I cannot recommend it highly enough. -- Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, OtherIn clear, accessible prose, this book upturns versions of the past that privilege his-story, revealing a more complex and many-layered past, one in which enslaved women were central to the struggle for freedom. -- Suzanne Scafe, co-author of The Heart of the RaceStella Dadzie has given us another chapter in women's history by uncovering resistance that is uniquely rooted in controlling reproduction. This is a meticulously researched narrative that privileges the people who were so brutally treated that it was easy to assume they had no agency. We now know that such an assumption would be mistaken. This is an essential addition to the corpus of historical study into the nature, legacy and impacts of the period of African enslavement. It's finally a work that allows us to better understand and recognise how women disrupted the principal economic principles supporting the enslavement of generations of people. -- Arike Oke, Director of The Black Cultural ArchivesWhat has become distinctive of Dadzie's scholarship is the way she centres black women in their own stories and this continues in A Kick in the Belly...After being fed narratives that 'the material doesn't exist', A Kick in the Belly shows that it is really a matter of knowing where to look and how to listen. -- Sarah Lusack * Black Ballad *Amplifies and honours the innovative ways women fought for freedom and kept their cultures alive despite the brutality they faced...When filmmaker Ava DuVernay says she is her ancestor's wildest dreams, these are the women she's talking about. -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * Red *Highlighting the experiences of enslaved women in the Anglo-Caribbean, Dadzie gives primacy, as she did in her seminal book Heart of the Race (with Beverley Bryan and Suzanne Scafe), to Black women's voices. In doing so, she puts a narrative of empowerment and hope at the centre of the brutal history of slavery. -- Meleisa Ono-George * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThe Nawab Nazim was born into one of India's most powerful royal families. Three times the size of Great Britain, his kingdom ranged from the soaring Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. However, in 1880, he was forced to abdicate by the British authorities, who saw him as a threat and permanently abolished his titles. The Nawab's change in fortune marked the end of an era in India and left his secret English family abandoned. The Last Prince of Bengal tells the true story of the Nawab Nazim and his family as they sought by turns to befriend, settle in and eventually escape Britain. From glamourous receptions with Queen Victoria to a scandalous Muslim marriage with an English chambermaid; and from Bengal tiger hunts to sheep farming in the harsh Australian outback, Lyn Innes recounts her ancestors' extraordinary journey from royalty to relative anonymity. This compelling account visits the extremes of British rule in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exposing complex prejudices regarding race, class and gender. It is the intimate story of one family and their place in defining moments of recent Indian, British and Australian history.Trade Review'I was captivated and surprised by this bitter-sweet history as it twists and turns down three generations, through many astonishing changes of fame and fortune, from a glittering Bengal palace to an Australian sheep farm. Lovingly researched and meticulously told, The Last Prince of Bengal is notable for its candid revelations of British colonial attitudes and hypocrisies across two centuries. A rich, delightful and unexpectedly thought-provoking saga.'--Richard Holmes 'The book is a rich tapestry of family narrative in the course of which various intolerances of nation, ethnicity, class and gender are woven into a story that is deft, alive to irony, and alert to many human foibles - it is a work in which intellectual audacity is matched by sound research and textual scruple. The result is a masterpiece of patient, lucid analysis ... a spellbinding family history.' --Declan Kiberd The Irish Times. 'Lyn Innes explores her ancestors' history in moving detail, capturing the tragic story of the dethroned princes of Bengal who had to make their lives in foreign lands, marked forever by the harsh legacy of Empire.' Shrabani Basu, author of Victoria and Abdul: The Extraordinary True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant. 'Lyn Innes tells her extraordinary and engrossing personal family history, revealing the ways in which the British Empire brought lives together, and scattered people apart. The Last Prince of Bengal tells us about the multitude histories we carry within, and the humiliations that race, class and faith perpetuate.' --Salil Tripathi, author of The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy

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Book SynopsisThe “Middle East” has long been an indispensable and ubiquitous term in discussing world affairs, yet its history remains curiously underexplored. In Inventing the Middle East Guillemette Crouzet charts the spatial, political, and cultural emergence of the Middle East, not in the twentieth century but in the nineteenth.Trade Review“A welcome reassessment that not only shows how Britain’s empire in the Middle East began and ended in the Persian Gulf but reminds us of the violence and contestation of that colonial relationship. Meticulously researched and rigorously argued – an outstanding book.” Eugene Rogan, University of Oxford and author of The Arabs: A History “Deeply researched and elegantly written, Crouzet’s Inventing the Middle East offers a major intervention in historical analysis of Britain’s conception of the nineteenth-century Persian Gulf. Taking archaeologists, cartographers, colonial bureaucrats, pearl fishers, slave traders, steam technologists, and Wahhabis into her capacious purview, Crouzet expertly anatomizes the emergence of the Gulf.” Margot Finn, University College London“Crouzet re-centres the Gulf in early globalizing flows and provides a welcome antidote to more conventional accounts that treat the region as peripheral to world history prior to the discovery and extraction of oil.” International Affairs“Crouzet provides an “aquatic and amphibious history” of the region, primarily through the prism of British records [and] delivers a highly readable and methodologically sound account of how the British envisioned and shaped the Gulf from the 1780s to the early 20th century. The book carefully deconstructs the hybrid political and legal architecture that resulted from the interactions between the most powerful empire of the late 19th century and local stakeholders.” *International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies *

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Book SynopsisSana Aiyar chronicles the strategies by which Indians sought a political voice in Kenya, from the beginning of colonial rule to independence. She examines how the strands of Indians’ diasporic identity influenced Kenya’s leadership—from partnering with Europeans to colonize East Africa, to collaborating with Africans to battle racial inequality.Trade ReviewAll chapters come alive not merely with interesting facts but with a wealth of details about the key players, their backgrounds, achievements, trials and tribulations. The extensive archival consultations by the author in three continents and her professionalism as a historian and historiographer stand out. The copious, chapter-wise notes constitute invaluable reference material… Sana Aiyar’s is a fair and empathetic account of the sojourn of the Indian diaspora in Kenya… It is rarely that one comes across a book by a specialist in one discipline that is so accommodative of the other perspectives. The book not only blends rigorous historiographic study with deep insights into diasporic consciousness but also sets the bar very high for future scholarship and writing on such topics. Every other theatre of Indian migration that the author refers to (Fiji, Mauritius, Natal, Burma, Malaya and the Caribbean, p.4)—not to mention the Gulf and Sri Lanka—deserves such a book. It will not be easy to write one anywhere near as compelling but we must hope that this book inspires many young scholars to take that up as a challenge. -- S. Krishna Kumar * The Hindu *Aiyar captures the complexities and multiple layers of the narratives on Indians in Kenya… Persuasive, extensively researched, eloquently written and well packaged, Indians in Kenya should invite all of us to rethink our concerns with marginality. -- Godwin Siundu * Daily Nation *An important new book… Aiyar delves deeply into the Kenyan, British and Indian archives to give us a vivid and compelling account of the currents and cross-currents in modern Kenyan politics. Her combination of meticulous research with a gift for lucid exposition ensures for this work a wide academic as well as general audience. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of the Indian diaspora or modern Kenya. -- Chandrashekhar Dasgupta * Indian Express *The question of where immigrants belong, their citizenship claims, and their affiliation or allegiance with their host or country of origin is a constant source of friction. Historian Aiyar captures the dynamic and changing political and economic fortunes of Indian settlers in Kenya from the precolonial to the postcolonial era. Six captivating chapters full of in-depth archival research in London, Oxford, Nairobi, and Delhi examine the different trajectories Indian immigrants faced from their collaboration as part of the British ‘subimperialist colonizers’ in 1895 to their ‘voluntary exodus’ from Kenya as non-citizens in 1968. Aiyar highlights the dilemma in which the Indians entangled themselves. Though they envisaged themselves as ‘agents of modernity equal to the Europeans’ and enjoyed the lived ‘reality of colonial privileges,’ both ‘black and brown’ ranked lower in British racial hierarchy. However, the gulf between Indians and Kenyans widened over Indian claims of their ‘civilization difference from Africans,’ their interpretation of what nationhood meant, and the desire of independent Kenyans to reduce Indians to the untenable status of ‘permanent immigrants.’ This book is a serious attempt to look at what immigration entails. -- Z. N. Nchinda * Choice *Elegantly written and richly researched, this book traces the manifold layers that make up the connective tissue between Kenya and India. In a stylish narrative with a compelling cast of characters, this book expands the scale of colonial history and decolonization, reconfiguring East Africa, South Asia, and the Indian Ocean world in a wonderful instance of transnational history. -- Isabel Hofmeyr, author of The Portable Bunyan: A Transnational History of The Pilgrim’s ProgressBased on intrepid research in multiple archives, Indians in Kenya deftly brings to light the full range of economic roles, social adjustments and political choices of a South Asian diaspora in the age of anti-colonial nationalism and its post-colonial aftermath. Equally attentive to travels by sea and settlements on land, Sana Aiyar’s transnational exploration makes original contributions to South Asian, African, and Indian Ocean history. -- Ayesha Jalal, author of Partisans of Allah: Jihad in South Asia

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Book SynopsisNazmul Sultan explores Indian contributions to democratic theory, as anticolonial thinkers developed principles of peoplehood and self-rule. Indians contested British claims that the “backwardness” of the Indian people offered a democratic justification for imperial domination.Trade ReviewA brilliant demonstration of anticolonialism’s critical contributions to the history of democratic political thought. Sultan’s historically nuanced and theoretically insightful account of how the leading thinkers and activists of India’s anticolonial struggle confronted the fraught colonial legacies of democratic developmentalism and the problem of peoplehood makes an essential contribution to contemporary democratic theory. -- Jason Frank, author of The Democratic SublimeA dazzling reconstruction of how the problem of peoplehood spurred conceptual innovations in Indian anticolonial thought. Sultan demonstrates, with style and rigor, that to answer the challenge of colonialism, Indian thinkers had to reinvent the very meaning of democracy. -- Karuna Mantena, author of Alibis of EmpireAn engaging, innovative, and wide-ranging account of the way in which anticolonial thought in India creatively reconceptualized the idea of popular sovereignty. It sheds new light on the theoretical relationship between democratic legitimation and development. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of The Burden of DemocracyAn indispensable intervention to the fields of postcolonial theory and democratic theory, Waiting for the People illustrates how the colonial construction of India’s backwardness gave rise to a very distinct dilemma for anticolonial thinkers and actors. Seeking to authorize their demands for independence in the name of the people, they found that the people had not yet arrived. Traversing a range of figures and periods in the history of Indian anticolonial political thought, Sultan tracks the innovative conceptual and institutional strategies advanced in response to this dilemma of colonial peoplehood. -- Adom Getachew, author of Worldmaking after EmpireWith dazzling insight, Waiting for the People demonstrates how Indian anticolonial thinkers reimagined democracy and popular sovereignty. A sure-footed guide through the fault lines between political thought and practical politics, this highly original work shows us the global future of democratic government. -- Rohit De, author of A People’s Constitution

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Book Synopsis"First published in German as Dekolonisation by Jan C. Jansen and Jeurgen Osterhammel, A Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, Meunchen 2013"--Title page verso.Trade Review"This clear, concise, and new interpretation will be welcomed by students, scholars, and general readers interested in one of the most defining and consequential developments of the 20th century."--Publishers Weekly "This is a work not only valuable for its discussion of the topic, but for placing it in a context sorely needed in today's hydra-headed discussions of the term and the word from which it is derived... Perhaps this book's greatest virtue is reminding us of what a global phenomenon it was by concentrating on the vast French colonial empire, as well as the Portuguese, German, Japanese and, yes, American realms."--Martin Rubin, Washington TimesTable of ContentsPreface vii 1 Decolonization as Moment and Process 1 2 Nationalism, Late Colonialism, World Wars 35 3 Paths to Sovereignty 71 4 Economy 119 5 World Politics 139 6 Ideas and Programs 156 7 Legacies and Memories 171 Notes 193 Select Readings 225 Index 237

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