Colonialism and imperialism Books

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY BOOK PRIZE FOR GLOBAL CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGSHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN-HESSEL TILTMAN PRIZE 2021LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2021Helps re-centre how we look at the world' PETER FRANKOPANGlobal history at its finest' SUNIL AMRITHA master class' OLIVETTE OTELE''Fascinating'' FINANCIAL TIMESStarting from the ocean and from the forgotten histories of ocean-facing communities, this is a new history of the making of our world.After revolutions in America and France, a wave of tumult coursed the globe from 1790 to 1850. It was a moment of unprecedented change and violence especially for indigenous peoples. By 1850 vibrant public debate between colonised communities had exploded in port cities. Yet in the midst of all of this, Britain struck out by sea and established its supremacy over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, overtaking the French and Dutch as well as other rivals.Cambridge historian Sujit Sivasundaram brings together his work in far-flung archiveTrade Review‘Fresh, sparkling and ground-breaking, Waves Across the South helps re-centre how we look at the world and opens up new perspectives on how we can look at regions, peoples and places that have been left to one side of traditional histories for far too long’PETER FRANKOPAN ‘A magisterial intervention in world history’MARGOT FINN, PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY ‘A breathtaking book. Sujit Sivasundaram takes the familiar story of the “age of revolutions” and turns it upside down, putting the voices, the hopes and the struggles of the seafaring peoples of the Indian and Pacific oceans at the heart of his account of how the modern world was forged … Global history at its finest: eloquent, surprising, and deeply moving’SUNIL AMRITH, AUTHOR OF UNRULY WATERS ‘Challenges our understanding of colonial history … [The] outstanding volume takes us on a gripping journey across the globe … [This] magisterial book brings to light a world history that has so far been cast aside by many world historians … A master class in history writing’OLIVETTE OTELE, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY OF SLAVERY AT BRISTOL UNIVERSITY ‘[There are] many fascinating stories in this rich and stimulating new history … Turns conventional wisdom upside down, and invites us to follow the making of the modern world from the Pacific instead … This is big history’SPECTATOR 'Fascinating … Brings to life the “surge of indigenous politics” that marked this era'FINANCIAL TIMES 'Brilliantly reconstructs how empire was made through voyages across oceans … An exemplar of historical writing'BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE ‘He follows little-known voyages across the southern oceans accomplished by multi-ethnic crews … He deftly outlines the singularity of the British Empire… As Sivasundaram convincingly argues in the global South this revolutionary age was defined by the way indigenous peoples responded to Western invasion'LITERARY REVIEW

Read more less

Book SynopsisCal Flyn was very proud when she discovered that her ancestor, Angus McMillan, had been a pioneer of colonial Australia. However, when she dug deeper, she began to question her pride. McMillan had not only cut tracks through the bush, but played a dark role in Australia''s bloody history.In 1837 Angus McMillan left the Scottish Highlands for the other side of the world. Cutting paths through the Australian frontier, he became a feted pioneer, to be forever mythologised in status and landmarks. He was also Cal Flyn's great-great-great-uncle. Inspired by his fame, Flyn followed in his footsteps to Australia, where she would face horrifying family secrets.Blending memoir, history and travel,Thicker Than Water' evokes the startlingly beautiful wilderness of the Highlands, the desolate bush of Victoria and the reverberations on one from the other. A tale of blood and bloodlines, it is a powerful, personal journey into dark family history, grief and guilt.Trade ReviewSummer Reads of 2016, GuardianBooks of the Year 2016, The Times ‘Stunning. ‘Thicker Than Water’ is a thrilling debut, a true story that reads like a classy, compelling fiction’ The Times ‘A moving and impressive debut’ Telegraph ‘Deftly captures the looking-glass world of the antipodean landscape … Her account is vivid with a sense of strangeness … ‘Thicker Than Water’ is, to borrow a word Australians use when dealing with anything unsettling, a “confronting” book’ Guardian ‘Intelligently and evocatively written’ Allan Massie, Scotsman 'A searing tale of adventure and (self) discovery that shows the past is nearer than we think. Flyn is a writer with a gimlet eye and a big heart' Ben Rawlence ‘Thicker Than Water combines memoir, history, travelogue and lyrical nature writing; a true story that reads like classy, page-turning fiction’ Melanie Read, The Times ‘An unflinchingly honest, profoundly moving memoir’ Herald

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2019 PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZEThe fascinating history of Christopher Columbus's illegitimate son Hernando, guardian of his father's flame, courtier, bibliophile and catalogue supreme, whose travels took him to the heart of 16th-century Europe' Honor Clerk, Spectator, Books of the YearThis is the scarcely believable and wholly true story of Christopher Columbus'' bastard son Hernando, who sought to equal and surpass his father''s achievements by creating a universal library. His father sailed across the ocean to explore the known boundaries of the world for the glory of God, Spain and himself. His son Hernando sought instead to harness the vast powers of the new printing presses to assemble the world's knowledge in one place, his library in Seville.Hernando was one of the first and greatest visionaries of the print age, someone who saw how the scale of available information would entirely change the landscape of thought and society.His was an immensely eventual life. As Trade Review‘It’s a captivating adventure … For lovers of history, Wilson-Lee offers a thrill on almost every page … The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books offers a vivid picture of Europe on the verge of becoming modern, but still holding tight to its ancient baggage … Magnificent.’ New York Times ‘READ THIS TRANSPORTING BOOK. Take it to the beach, to the countryside wherever – and thank you Edward Wilson-Lee for writing it, and with such a sense of vital grace’ Simon Schama ‘Perfectly pitched poetic drama – the closest thing documented history can get to magic realism… The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books is a wonderful book …The true measure of Edward Wilson-Lee’s accomplishment, delivered in a simile-studded prose that is seldom less elegant and often quite beautiful, is to make Hernando’s epic, measured library shelves, not nautical miles, every bit as thrilling as his father’s story’ Financial Times ‘Wilson-Lee’s book – the first modern biography of Hernando written in English – is far more than just a straight account of a life, albeit a rich one… moving… Wilson-Lee does a fine job of capturing the intellectual excitement of a moment in European history’ New Statesman 'Edward Wilson-Lee’s fascinating and beautifully written account of how Hernando conceived and assembled his library is set within a highly original biography of the compiler. It’s a work of imagination restrained by respect for evidence, of brilliance suitably alloyed by erudition, and of scholarship enlivened by sensitivity and acuity' Literary Review ‘Hernando Columbus deserves to be as famous as his father, Christopher… Wilson-Lee’s greatest strength is the subtlety with which Hernando’s public life as a courtier and his private life as a collector are interwoven … Wilson-Lee leads us almost by stealth to an understanding of his subject’s greatest achievement’ Spectator

Read more less

Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its range of best-loved, essential classics.The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.'When Charles Marlow agrees to captain a steamer up the Congo in search of the elusive ivory trader Mr Kurtz, it becomes a terrifying journey into both the unknown and his own subconscious. As he travels deeper and deeper into the dense jungle, he begins to sense the presence of this extraordinary and terrible man, and to question the horrifying realities of European imperialism and of human nature itself.Originally published as a three-part story in 1899, Conrad's masterpiece has inspired many further works, including Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and remains a thought-provoking text to this day.

Read more less

Book SynopsisConcise, elegant and lucid A very useful primer on the delusions of an English mentality' GuardianWhat do we get wrong about Britain's history and its place in the world? In a brilliant, big-picture history, bestselling author David Reynolds moves beyond the Brexit debate to trace and reassess the defining narratives of Britain's past. From fluctuating engagement with Europe to the legacies of Empire. From the Acts of Union that forged the United Kingdom to the slave trade, immigration and the special relationship. This is a vital guide to how Britain's identity was really formed, and what long-held and often-damaging illusions we should be shaking off.Trade Review‘Splendid… a clear, well­written and highly stimulating account of the flaws in our understanding of Britain's past that bedevilled the great debate over the country's relations with the EU and helped produce the result it did. We could have done with it two or three years ago. But then real history, based on extensive reading, research and the wisdom of a true historian, takes a while to write.’ Literary Review ‘[A] concise, elegant and lucid revisiting of key themes in British history … There is here not history but histories … Reynolds provides a very useful primer on the delusions of an English mentality.’ Guardian ‘Incisive … Reynolds provides a useful summary of the scholarship that has examined the relationship between the four nations in the British Isles … Reynolds is at his best when the narrative of Europe as antagonist is concerned … On the basis of Reynolds’ compelling account, Britain’s future outside the EU ought to begin with an honest assessment of its past.’ Financial Times ‘History is essential to political awareness, and the Brexit debate was certainly shaped by historical narratives. Reynolds subjects these narratives to brisk, witty and often acerbic appraisal … His commentary on how these stories have shaped postwar British politics is compelling.’ TLS ‘Lively, slender and timely’ Foreign Affairs

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Whitley Award for Best Natural History Book 2022A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia''s wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future. Think of a platypus: they lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), they produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs and they can detect electricity. Or a wombat: their teeth never stop growing, they poo cubes and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation?In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousandsTrade Review‘Charming, informative … a marvellous read’ Tim Flannery, New York Review of Books ‘Ashby reveals marvellous creatures, and the mysteries and myths surrounding them’ BBC Wildlife magazine ‘Ashby’s spirited tour of the Australian bestiary is a revelation to readers unfamiliar with the intricacies of platypus biology, and unacquainted with nabarleks, dunnarts and other indigenous Australian fauna.’ Natural History ‘Building on his considerable scientific knowledge and decades of field experience, Ashby immerses readers in all things platypus … A must-read for any mammal nerd or Aussie wildlife enthusiast.’ Nature Conservancy's Cool Green Science ‘An engaging natural (and enraging colonial) history’ Washington Independent Review of Books ‘From platypuses and possums, through wombats, echidnas, devils and kangaroos, to quolls, dibblers, dunnarts and kowaris, Ashby knows them all; and he guides his readers on a tour of their lives, their evolutionary stories and the challenges they face in the modern world.’ The Well-read Naturalist ‘Fascinating … This is wonderfully dorky stuff … A persistently, defiantly upbeat book, downright infused with Ashby’s scientific exuberance’ Open Letters Review ‘Keen to overturn the warped, colonial perception that monotremes (e.g. platypuses and echidnas) and marsupials are more primitive than other mammal species, the zoologist author who runs Cambridge's Natural History Museum takes us on a tour of the fauna of Australia in all their glory …Engaging and entertaining’ Bookseller ‘This is a compelling, funny, firsthand account of our wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions of them impact their future.’ Australian Geographic ‘Ashby has an infectious enthusiasm for Aussie marsupials and monotremes’ West Australian ‘Written in a lively, conversational style and drawing on decades of fieldwork, this is a beguiling portrait of our unique fauna.’ Sydney Morning Herald

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe way Robert Peal describes Georgian England, you'd be mad not to want to live there yourself' GUARDIANAnne Bonny and Mary Read, pirate queens of the CaribbeanTipu Sultan, the Indian ruler who kept the British at bayOlaudah Equiano, the former slave whose story shocked the worldMary Wollstonecraft, the feminist who fought for women's rightsLadies of Llangollen, the lovers who built paradise in a Welsh valleyMad, bad and dangerous to know' is how Lord Byron, the poet who drank wine from a monk's skull and slept with his half-sister, was described by one of his many lovers. But mad, bad and dangerous' serves as a good description for the entire Georgian period: often neglected, the hundred or so years between the coronation of George I in 1714 and the death of George IV in 1830 were years when the modern world was formed, and changes came thick and fast.Across this century, new foods pineapples, coffee and pepper suddenly became available in the shops. Fashion exploded into a riot ofTrade Review‘The way Robert Peal describes Georgian England, you’d be mad not to want to live there yourself … He does make us think about the extraordinary breadth of experience on show in a period that tends to get written off in popular history … Peal has a sharp awareness of the best scholarly work on the subject and where to find it … An excellent entry point’KATHRYN HUGHES, GUARDIAN ‘[A] lively portrait of 12 notable Georgians … This book will keep you awake. Steering clear of pompous, soporific vocabulary … There are some good life stories here, gutsily told’DAILY MAIL ‘Peal brings the era to vivid, outrageous life, writing chattily, with a scattering of slang that wouldn’t have made the Georgians turn a hair’CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL ‘This is a form of history book that I very, very much enjoy … A really good, fun, interesting read. It’s very accessible. It’s very irreverent and witty, laughing at the madness of the Georgian period … I would definitely recommend it’BOOKS AND THINGS ‘I wish Robert Peal had been around when I did A-level history … I feel that Peal would have inspired me to achieve grade A stardom. The sheer energy and enthusiasm he brings to his subject is thrilling … Meet the Georgians uncovered in a wild and witty romp through the long 18th century’JANE AUSTEN’S REGENCY WORLD ‘Really interesting … I learnt some interesting facts I didn't already know, and enjoyed the way the author told the stories of their lives. I would recommend, and hope the author considers writing more like this, but set in other eras also’NETGALLEY REVIEWER, 5/5 STARS ‘A most enjoyable, witty and let's not forget educational read! I think this book can be a great way to attract teens to history. But it is definitely not only a read for teens … I would love to see this made into a series(patiently waiting for 'Meet the Victorians' to be made a reality)’NETGALLEY REVIEWER, 4/5 STARS

Read more less

Book SynopsisExam board: Edexcel Level & Subject: AS and A Level English Literature First teaching: September 2015 Next exams: 2025Trade Review“The new Collins Classroom Classic editions are perfect for schools – clear text, bright covers, a good size for pockets and bags, and a great price that makes buying new class or cohort sets very attractive in these budget-conscious times.” de Stafford School

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHYA narrative of startling originality As discussions of Britain's colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one' SAM DALRYMPLE, SPECTATORRebels Against the Raj tells the little-known story of seven people who chose to struggle for a country other than their own: foreigners to India who across the late 19th to late 20th century arrived to join the freedom movement fighting for independence.Of the seven, four were British, two American, and one Irish. Four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields: journalism, social reform, education, organic agriculture, environmentalism.This book tells their stories, each renegade motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes where others found endless infuriation in his views; each understanding they woulTrade Review‘A narrative of startling originality … his excitement at discovering a forgotten chapter of Indian history is contagious … As discussions of Britain’s colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one’Sam Dalrymple, Spectator ‘Fascinating and provocative … Guha organises his material expertly and presents it clearly and stylishly, illuminating an aspect of Raj history which is often forgotten or neglected but which is nonetheless crucial for an understanding both of present-day India and of Britons’ complex and ambivalent past relationship to this ‘jewel’ in their collective crown. This superb book does them justice, as well as adding a new dimension to the histories both of subject India and of imperial Britain – and being a thoroughly good read’Literary Review ‘Guha has done well to remind us of these forgotten stories, all the more as India, like much of the world, is becoming more xenophobic and intolerant, believing all the virtues lie in national frontiers’Irish Times ‘Illuminating and engaging … Guha’s wide-ranging research and lucid narration brings to life these men and women … Rebels Against the Raj, however, makes a larger, more important and incisive point. Guha calls the lives and work of these rebels a morality tale for the world we now inhabit – a world incandescent with xenophobia and jingoism, and full of contempt for thoughts and ideas that a culture can imbibe from outside its borders’New Statesman ‘Eminently readable and dazzling … Painstakingly researched, this is history writing at its best. It is indeed a masterly study of hitherto neglected western figures of modern India and opens a new way of engaging with the complex fault-lines between nationalism and imperialism, between India and the West … Guha’s outstanding work … couldn’t be more relevant. Every Indian should read this book’The Tribune

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHYA narrative of startling originality As discussions of Britain's colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one' SAM DALRYMPLE, SPECTATORRebels Against the Raj tells the little-known story of seven people who chose to struggle for a country other than their own: foreigners to India who across the late 19th to late 20th century arrived to join the freedom movement fighting for independence.Of the seven, four were British, two American, and one Irish. Four men, three women. Before and after being jailed or deported they did remarkable and pioneering work in a variety of fields: journalism, social reform, education, organic agriculture, environmentalism.This book tells their stories, each renegade motivated by idealism and genuine sacrifice; each connected to Gandhi, though some as acolytes where others found endless infuriation in his views; each understanding they woulTrade Review‘A narrative of startling originality … his excitement at discovering a forgotten chapter of Indian history is contagious … As discussions of Britain’s colonial legacy become increasingly polarised, we are in ever more need of nuanced books like this one’Sam Dalrymple, Spectator ‘Fascinating and provocative … Guha organises his material expertly and presents it clearly and stylishly, illuminating an aspect of Raj history which is often forgotten or neglected but which is nonetheless crucial for an understanding both of present-day India and of Britons’ complex and ambivalent past relationship to this ‘jewel’ in their collective crown. This superb book does them justice, as well as adding a new dimension to the histories both of subject India and of imperial Britain – and being a thoroughly good read’Literary Review ‘Guha has done well to remind us of these forgotten stories, all the more as India, like much of the world, is becoming more xenophobic and intolerant, believing all the virtues lie in national frontiers’Irish Times ‘Illuminating and engaging … Guha’s wide-ranging research and lucid narration brings to life these men and women … Rebels Against the Raj, however, makes a larger, more important and incisive point. Guha calls the lives and work of these rebels a morality tale for the world we now inhabit – a world incandescent with xenophobia and jingoism, and full of contempt for thoughts and ideas that a culture can imbibe from outside its borders’New Statesman ‘Eminently readable and dazzling … Painstakingly researched, this is history writing at its best. It is indeed a masterly study of hitherto neglected western figures of modern India and opens a new way of engaging with the complex fault-lines between nationalism and imperialism, between India and the West … Guha’s outstanding work … couldn’t be more relevant. Every Indian should read this book’The Tribune

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe oral history of Britain's first West Indian immigrants and their descendantsIn 1948 the former troop ship Windrush made the 30-day journey across the Atlantic from Jamaica. The arrival of its 500 passengers, the first generation of Caribbean migrants in the UK, was the initial step in the formation of a new identity: the black Briton.Fifty years later, Mike and Trevor Phillips spoke to those on the Windrush itself, as well as those who followed, to tell the story of Britain in the second half of the twentieth century through the eyes of the outsiders who became insiders.Now updated to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the ship's voyage and including reflections on its political and cultural legacy in 2023, Windrush is an essential record of this transformative era in British social history.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSara Wheeler's books include the international bestseller Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, of which the Telegraph reviewer wrote, I do not think there will ever be a better book on the Antarctic.' The Magnetic North: Notes from the Arctic Circle, was chosen as Book of the Year by Will Self, Michael Palin, A. N. Wilson and others. She has published two biographies of travellers: Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and Too Close to the Sun: The Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton, and was immensely relieved to write about women at last in O My America!. She lives in London.Trade ReviewA good story... a fitting memorial * Observer *A fascinating story of a man trying to outrun the social upheavals of the twentieth century * Herald *Wheeler has made excellent use of the sources at hand... Moreover, Wheeler writes well, and has a gift - shared by only very few - for pinning down the smells and atmosphere of the African landscape * Literary Review *She dazzles the reader with an evocation of time and place.. her description of the east Africa Campaign is detailed and enthralling -- Keith Dovkants * Scotsman *She writes beautifully, with a vivid turn of phrase, a sound grasp of history and an impish humour -- Andrew Lycett * Sunday Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisMohandas Gandhi and Winston Churchill: India''s moral leader and Great Britain''s greatest Prime Minister. Born five years and seven thousand miles apart, they became embodiments of the nations they led. Both became living icons, idolized and admired around the world. Today, they remain enduring models of leadership in a democratic society.Yet the truth was Churchill and Gandhi were bitter enemies throughout their lives. This book reveals, for the first time, how that rivalry shaped the twentieth century and beyond. For more than forty years, from 1906 to 1948, Gandhi and Churchill were locked in a tense struggle for the hearts and minds of the British public, and of world opinion. Although they met only once, their titanic contest of wills would decide the fate of nations, continents, peoples, and ultimately an Empire.Here is a sweeping epic with a fascinating supporting cast, and a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure - and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.Trade ReviewYou finish Gandhi & Churchill knowing that you can evaluate the world today, particularly modern India, with more knowledge and insight * USA Today *Exquisitely detailed ... replete with stories underscoring the gulf between Churchill's robust realism and Gandhi's ascetic utopianism * Washington Times *The rivalry between Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi could hardly have been played for higher stakes. The future of British India hung upon the outcome of their 20-year struggle ... Herman has researched Gandhi & Churchill meticulously and written it fluently * Wall Street Journal *An insightful and engaging interpretation of a common history * Time Out *Herman's dual biography artfully depicts the personalities of the two men ... [and] takes careful account of the constellation of modern and antimodern currents of late Victorian thought in situating these vastly influential figures in a fascinating narrative of their times * Publishers Weekly *

Read more less

Book SynopsisRough Crossings is the astonishing story of the struggle to freedom by thousands of African-American slaves who fled the plantations to fight behind British lines in the American War of Independence. With gripping, powerfully vivid story-telling, Simon Schama follows the escaped blacks into the fires of the war, and into freezing, inhospitable Nova Scotia where many who had served the Crown were betrayed in their promises to receive land at the war''s end. Their fate became entwined with British abolitionists: inspirational figures such as Granville Sharp, the flute-playing father-figure of slave freedom, and John Clarkson, the ''Moses'' of this great exodus, who accompanied the blacks on their final rough crossing to Africa, where they hoped that freedom would finally greet them.Trade ReviewThis brilliant book by the leading historian of our times about a subject of great significance will delight professional historians and entrance the reading public. Rough Crossings succeeds in all respects. It is a 'tour de force' and a landmark in historical scholarship * Times Higher Education Supplement *Schama's gift for plunging us into the very centre of the action, whether in Charleston, London or on the African coast, makes reading an exhilarating experience * Daily Telegraph *Brilliant and deeply moving * Observer *Schama has a remarkable ability to stare into the anonymous faces in the crowd and to pluck them from historical obscurity. Rough Crossings gives voice to people who have, until now, remained mere names on duty lists -- James WalvinOne only has to dip into Rough Crossings to appreciate the command of detail that lies behind his apparently effortless ability to come up with the right quotation or description * Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisCaroline Elkins is a professor of history and of African and African American studies at Harvard University and the founding director of Harvard's Centre for African Studies. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Fulbright and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship.Her first book, Britain's Gulag: The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her research for that book was the subject of the award-winning BBC documentary Kenya: White Terror. She also served as an expert in the historic Mau Mau reparations case, brought against the British Government by survivors of violence in Kenya.She is a contributor to the New York Times Book Review, Guardian, Atlantic, Washington Post and New Republic. She lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.Trade ReviewMasterful, crucial ... as unflinching as it is gripping, as carefully researched as it is urgently necessary -- Jill Lepore, author of These TruthsMasterly... demonstrates that the British Empire, far from being part good, part bad, baked together from the outset state-sponsored violence and institutional racism with a periodic rewriting of its history as one of progress and civilisation, covering up atrocities and hiding or destroying incriminating documents. This book is dynamite -- Robert Gildea, author of Empires of the MindThe history of the British Empire that we desperately need today... Sweeping, forceful, and passionately argued... A monumental achievement -- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn WatchA gripping, richly peopled, epic narrative... In stunning prose and drawing on staggering research, Elkins uncovers the reality of routine and ruthlessly violent suspension of law and militarized policing as imperial personnel and practices moved from crisis to crisis around the globe -- Priya Satia, author of Time's Monster: How History Makes HistoryIn nothing was the British Empire more successful than its skilful concealment of the violence that it unleashed across the globe, over centuries. Caroline Elkins' Legacy of Violence is a laudably ambitious attempt at unearthing this hidden legacy, the bitter fruits of which are becoming more and more visible every day -- Amitav Ghosh, author of The Nutmeg’s CurseIlluminating and authoritative... The repression and violence Elkins narrates on an epic scale matters because they continue to reverberate tragically in our global present -- Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent EmpireA work of deep archival achievement that creates a historical argument that is courageous and ambitious... This is a text for our times -- Homi Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities, Harvard UniversityA thumping great study by a heavyweight academic historian -- Robbie Millen * The Times, *Books to Look Out For 2022* *A clear, incisive account of the way in which the British maintained public order in the colonies through 'lawful lawlessness'... An exceedingly valuable book on the dark side of the British Empire -- Wm. Roger Louis, Editor-in-Chief of Oxford History of the British EmpireLegacy of Violence is a formidable piece of research that sets itself the ambition of identifying the character of British power over the course of two centuries and four continents... this history could not be more timely -- Tim Adams * Observer *Legacy of Violence...is deeply researched... a powerful, compelling read -- Rana Mitter * Financial Times *Fascinating... [Legacy of Violence] is a harrowing read, and one that brings the violence of empire sharply into focus -- Alex von Tunzelmann * BBC History Magazine *Vividly written... [Elkins] brings together...episodes in order to draw out what she sees as their commonalities in British imperial doctrine -- John Darwin * Times Literary Supplement *[Elkins'] magnum opus... Elkins' achievement is to chronicle how makeshift responses to rebellion evolved into a chillingly standardised playbook for the use of force -- Erik Linstrum * History Today *Legacy of Violence is beautifully written and follows through on its arguments doggedly... This is an important book that deserves to be read by everyone who wants to understand and argue against the current attempt to reinvigorate the romance of the British Empire * Socialist Worker *A dark, riveting book... her [Elkins'] method is what gives the book its intensity * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* *Fascinating... a real page-turner... the writing is backed up with considerable academic research... the evidence of systematic oppression, presented as powerfully and relentlessly as it is here, will be difficult to resist * Literary Review *Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance * BBC History Magazine, *Best Books of 2022* *

Read more less

Book SynopsisMichael Asher has served in the Parachute Regiment and the SAS Regiment. The author of twenty-four books and presenter of six TV documentaries, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1996. For his writing and travels, he has been awarded the Lawrence of Arabia Memorial Medal, the Mungo Park Medal and the Ness Award. He lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe story of Spain''s rise to greatness from its humble beginnings as one of the poorest and most marginal of European countries is a remarkable and dramatic one. With the marriage of Ferdinand & Isabella, the final expulsion of the Moslems and the discovery of America, Spain took on a seemingly unstoppable dynamism that made it into the world''s first global power. This amazing success however created many powerful enemies and Elliott''s famous book charts the dramatic fall of Habsburg Spain with the same elan as it charts the rise.Trade ReviewA major work on Spanish history (The Economist)"Table of ContentsImperial Spain 1469-1716AcknowledgmentsForewordPrologue1. The Union of the Crowns1. Origins of the union2. The two Crowns3. The decline of the Crown of Aragon4. Unequal partners2. Reconquest and Conquest1. The Reconquista completed2. The advance into Africa3. Medieval antecedents4. Conquest5. Settlement3. The Ordering of Spain1. The "new monarchy"2. The assertion of royal authority in Castile3. The Church and the Faith4. The economic and social foundations of the New Spain5. The open society4. The Imperial Destiny1. The foreign policy of Ferdinand2. The Habsburg succession3. Nationalism and revolt4. The imperial destiny5. The Government and the Economy in the Reign of Charles V1. The theory and practice of empire2. The organization of empire3. The Castilian economy4. The problems of imperial finance5. The liquidation of Charles's imperialism6. Race and Religion1. The advance of heresy2. The imposition of orthodoxy3. The Spain of the Counter-Reformation4. The crisis of the 1560s5. The second rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568-70)6. The Faith militant and the Faith triumphant7. "One Monarch, One Empire, and One Sword"1. King and Court2. The faction struggles3. The annexation of Portugal4. The revolt of Aragon (1591-2)8. Splendour and Misery1. The crisis of the 1590s2. The failure of leadership3. The pattern of society9. Revival and Disaster1. The reform programme2. The strain of war3. 16404. Defeat and survival10. Epitaph on an Empire1. The centre and the periphery2. The change of dynasty3. The failure4. The achievementNotes on Further ReadingIndexMapsIberian Expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries1. The Iberian Peninsula. Physical Features2. Habsburg Spain3. The Conquest of Grenada4. The Four Inheritances of Charles V5. The Collapse of Spanish PowerTables1. The Union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon2. The Spanish Habsburgs3. The Conciliat System4. Imports of Treasure5. The Portuguese Succession

Read more less

Book SynopsisPart of his trilogy on Scottish history, T. M. Devine''s To the Ends of the Earth is a compelling account of the Scots as a ''global people'', charting their forgotten role in the building of the modern world. The Scots are one of the world''s greatest nations of emigrants. For centuries, untold numbers of men, women and children sought their fortunes in every part of the globe, from the British Empire to the United States, in cities and on prairie farms, as traders, bankers, missionaries, soldiers, politicians and engineers. With To the Ends of the Earth T.M. Devine - acclaimed author of The Scottish Nation and Scotland''s Empire - puts this extraordinary epic centre stage in Scottish history, cutting through myth and sentiment surrounding stories such as the Highland Clearances and the Enlightenment to show the true impact of Scottish emigration on the world, and on the nation it left behind. ''A seminal work''&nbspTrade ReviewA seminal work ... a new iconoclasm which is welcome given the tosh that sometimes passes for knowledge on the subject of the Scottish diaspora. Commendably, Devine is not afraid to name and shame ... [he] has a rare gift for detecting contradictions -- Harry McGrath * Herald *Devine's final book in a remarkable trilogy ... fascinating and far-reaching ... His conclusions are as thoughtful and incisive as you'd expect from an academic who has established himself as one of the deepest thinkers on Scottish identity and history, and whose books remain staggeringly popular * Scottish Field *[This] rigorous and unsentimental history of Scotland's global diaspora ... explodes myths and foregrounds the prosaic realities of emigration ... it has the fascinating charm of a detective story * Guardian *Presents a grand overview of Scottish emigration ... very revealing ... an example of why To the Ends of the Earth is so timely [is that] it helps define the real landscape of choice and decision that is now presenting itself more plainly since the last Scottish election -- Tom Nairn * Scottish Review of Books *Sharply written ... Devine is an admirable historian, acerbic in judgment, and a pleasure to read ... fill[s] a serious gap left by the tendency of imperial historians to dwell on the political and capital power wielded in Westminster and the City of London * Spectator *Devine has brought a greater understanding to this fascinating subject and offers an intriguing perspective on a key component of our history and national identity -- Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland * Herald *

Read more less

Book SynopsisSaul David''s Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 is a fascinating look at the most controversial and brutal British imperial conflict of the nineteenth century.The real story of the Anglo-Zulu war was one of deception, dishonour, incompetence and dereliction of duty by Lord Chelmsford who invaded Zululand without the knowledge of the British Government. But it did not go to plan and there were many political repercussions. Using new material from archives in Britain and South Africa, Saul David blows the lid on this most sordid of imperial wars and comes to a number of startling new conclusions.''Saul David''s brilliant and magisterial account must now be regarded as the definitive history of the Zulu War'' Frank McLynn, Literary Review''This meticulously detailed book...give[s] a fully rounded and judicious account of this dismal conflict Guardian''Fascinating, thrilling, convincing... reads like a novel'' E

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the early nineteenth century China remained almost untouched by British and European powers - but as new technology started to change this balance, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire. Would the Chinese suffer the fate of much of the rest of the world, carved into pieces by Europeans? Or could they adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence?This important and compelling book explains the roots of China''s complex relationship with the West by illuminating a dramatic, colourful and sometimes shocking period of the country''s history.Trade ReviewPowerful, astute and readable ... meticulously researched in contemporary English-language records and journals, and written with flair and feeling, its rhetoric eschews rant and is never misplaced -- John Keay * Literary Review *Compellingly erudite and clear-sighted history -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *At every airport bookshop, the business traveller is offered shelves of volumes that purport to tell us how an emerging, powerful China will deal with the world, and how the rest of us should make the most of the commercial opportunities opened up by its rise. Those who wish to understand these issues more closely might be better advised to read this fair and fascinating account -- Chris Patten * Financial Times *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis extraordinary book is a vivid, highly original account of the creation of a new Asia after the Second World War - an unstoppable wave of nationalism that swept the British Empire aside. It tells the definitive story of how India, Pakistan, Burma and Malaysia came into existence and how British interference in Vietnam and Indonesia fatally shaped those countries'' futures.Trade ReviewThe story is told with a refreshing candour… [an] outstanding narrative account of the end of empire * , Richard Overy, author of THE DICTATORS *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFollowing Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age, World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authorityWorld Without End is the climax of Hugh Thomas''s great history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. It describes the conquest of Paraguay and the River Plate, of the Yucatan in Mexico, the only partial conquest of Chile, and battles with the French over Florida, and then, in the 1580s, the extraordinary projection of Spanish power across the Pacific to conquer the Philippines. More significantly, it describes how the Spanish ran the greatest empire the world had seen since Rome - as well as conquistadores, the book is people with viceroys, judges, nobles, bishops, inquisitors and administrators of many different kinds, often in conflict with one another, seeking to organise the native populations into towns, to build cathedrals, hospitals and universities. Behind them - sometimes ahead of them - came the religious orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and finally the Jesuits, builders of convents and monasteries, many of them of astonishing beauty, and reminders of the pervasiveness of religion and the self-confidence of the age.Towering above them all, though moving rarely from the palace of the Escorial outside Madrid, is the figure of King Philip II, the central figure in the book. The Venetian ambassador thought him ''the arbiter of the world''. Once the Philippines had been consolidated, Philip''s advisors contemplated an invasion of China: the Jesuit Father Sanchez called it ''the greatest enterprise which has ever been proposed to any monarch in the world''. It was an enterprise never undertaken, but never explicitly abandoned.Was it a great or a terrible empire? In contrast to other empire builders, the Spaniards entered upon arguments with each other about their right to rule other peoples, and their ruthlessness was often tempered by humanity. Hugh Thomas''s conclusion is unequivocal: ''The speed with which the sixteenth-century conquistadores conquered such large territories on two vast continents, and the comparable success of missionaries with large populations of Indians, stands as one of the supreme epics of both valour and imagination by Europeans.''Trade ReviewThis is history as it used to be: adventurous men (and a few women), masses of action, little analysis but racy gossip and colourful scene setting. We could often be reading one of the tales the colonists themselves sent back -- Jeremy Treglown * Daily Telegraph *Literary power is a vital part of a great historian's armoury. As in his earlier books, Thomas demonstrates here that he has this in abundance. But equally important is [his] sense of perspective ... With all its flaws, Thomas argues, the Spanish Empire left an extraordinarily rich legacy -- Christopher Silvester * Financial Times *World Without End is full of illuminating detail, drawn from painstaking work * Economist *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first part of his trilogy on the Spanish Empire, Hugh Thomas''s Rivers of Gold brings the rise of Spain''s global empire vividly to life, capturing the spirit of an ebullient age. Inspired by hopes of both riches and of converting native people to Christianity, the Spanish adventurers of the fifteenth century convinced themselves that an Earthly Paradise existed in the Caribbean. This is the story of the hundreds of conquistadors who set sail on the precarious journey across the Atlantic - taking with them wheat, the horse, the guitar and the wheel as well as guns, malaria and slaves - to create an empire that made Spain the envy of the world. ''Affirms Hugh Thomas''s record as one of the most productive and wide-ranging historians of modern times''   The New York Times ''Splendid ... bold and strong in its outlines, rich in fasinating details''   Paul Johnson, Literary Review ''So steeped is he in the spirit of the time, so familiar with its people and places that we almost feel he must have been there at the time''   Sunday Telegraph ''A vivid, dramatic and compelling narrative''   Arthur Schlesinger, Jr ''As a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture ... Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on''   Jonathan Keates, Spectator ''An epic history of an extraordinary age''   Michael Kerrigan, Scotsman Hugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962) which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Conquest: Montezuma, Cortés and the Fall of Old Mexico (1994), An Unfinished History of the World (1979) and The Slave Trade (1997). The second volume of his planned trilogy on the Spanish Empire, The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V was published in 2011.Trade Review"As a historian, Thomas is master of the big picture ! Rivers of Gold sweeps us restlessly on" - Jonathan Keates, Spectator 'As an intelligent and incisive narrative the book would be hard to better... It is unusual to finish so long a book wishing for more' Sunday Telegraph

Read more less

Book SynopsisA remarkable account by a pioneering woman explorer who was described by Rudyard Kipling as ''the bravest woman of all my knowledge''.Until 1893, Mary Kingsley lived the typical life of a single Victorian woman, tending to sick relatives and keeping house for her brother. However, on the death of her parents, she undertook an extraordinary decision: with no prior knowledge of the region, she set out alone to West Africa to pursue her anthropological interests and collect botanical specimens. Her subsequent book, published in 1897, is a testament to understatement and humour - few explorers made less of the hardships and dangers experienced while travelling (including unaccompanied treks through dangerous jungles and encounters with deadly animals). Travels in West Africa would challenge (as well as reinforce) contemporary Victorian prejudices about Africa, and also made invaluable contributions to the fields of botany and anthropology. Above all, however, it has stood the test of time as a gripping, classic travel narrative by a woman whose sense of adventure and fascination with Africa transformed her whole life. This Penguin edition includes a fascinating introduction by Dr Toby Green examining Victorian attitudes to Africa, along with explanatory notes by Lynnette Turner.Mary Kingsley was born in north London in 1862, the daughter of the traveller and physician George Kingsley and his former housekeeper, Mary Bailey. Her education was scant: while her younger brother was sent away to school, she stayed at home. Later she lived in Cambridge, and cared for her bedridden mother. Following the deaths of her parents, Kingsley embarked on a voyage to West Africa in August 1893, with the object of studying native religion and law and collecting zoological specimens. In December 1894, she undertook a second trip to the region, during which she became the first woman to climb West Africa''s highest mountain, Mount Cameroon. On returning home eleven months later, she wrote Travels in West Africa, which was published in 1897 and was followed by West African Studies in 1899. Kingsley made one final trip to Africa, enlisting as a volunteer nurse in South Africa during the Boer War. She had only been there for two months when she developed typhoid fever and died, on 3rd June 1900, before being buried at sea in accordance with her wishes.Lynnette Turner is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Edge Hill University. Toby Green is Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture at Kings College London. His book The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa appeared in 2011.

Read more less

Book SynopsisNoel Malcolm, a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the British Academy, has previously written histories of Bosnia (1994) and Kosovo (1998). He is a general editor of the Clarendon edition of Thomas Hobbes, for which he himself has produced acclaimed editions of Hobbes's correspondence (1994) and Leviathan (2012). He is also a former Foreign Editor of the Spectator. He was knighted in 2014. Agents of Empire is his newest book.Trade ReviewThe book is a masterpiece, which will open the eyes of readers to the intrinsic interest and importance of a historically neglected region of Europe within the framework of a relationship between civilizations which is as complex today as it was in the sixteenth century. -- Sir John Elliott, Regius Professor of History Emeritus, University of OxfordThe word "magisterial" is overused, but for once it is properly applied to this latest offering from a scholar who is as prolific as he is polymathic. -- Daniel Johnson * Standpoint *There are very few scholars with Malcolm's linguistic skills and historical vision, which is one of the many reasons Agents of Empire is such an important book. It opens up new vistas of research into the hinterland of Renaissance Europe -- Jerry Brotton * Telegraph *The best introduction to the 16th-century Mediterranean since Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean in the Age of Philip II (1949) -- David Wootton * Wall Street Journal *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE 2021 DUKE OF WELLINGTON MEDAL FOR MILITARY HISTORYA DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020From an acclaimed military historian, the definitive account of Italy''s experience of the Second World WarWhile staying closely aligned with Hitler, Mussolini remained carefully neutral until the summer of 1940. Then, with the wholly unexpected and sudden collapse of the French and British armies, Mussolini declared war on the Allies in the hope of making territorial gains in southern France and Africa. This decision proved a horrifying miscalculation, dooming Italy to its own prolonged and unwinnable war, immense casualties and an Allied invasion in 1943 which ushered in a terrible new era for the country.John Gooch''s new book is the definitive account of Italy''s war experience. Beginning with the invasion of Abyssinia and ending with Mussolini''s arrest, Gooch brilliantly portrays the nightmare of a country with too sTrade ReviewJohn Gooch knows more about 20th-century Italy than perhaps anyone else in Britain ... He paints a record of appalling brutality, epic incompetence ... There are echoes of the madness of Benito Mussolini in outpourings that we hear daily from several world capitals, among them Washington. Listen, and be afraid. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *A meticulous, skilful account ... it is hard to imagine a finer account, both of the sweep of Italy's wars, and of the characters caught up in them. -- Caroline Moorhead * Guardian *An important book, adding much to our knowledge of Italy's baleful contribution to the conflicts of the 1930s and 1940s ... a work of meticulous scholarship. -- Saul David * The Times *Lucid ... diligently researched ... an exceptionally detailed portrait. -- Ian Thomson * The Spectator *Excellent ... This detailed military history shows the long arc of strategic ineptitude. -- Richard Overy * Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisNAMED A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 BY THE SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT, THE TABLET AND THE LADY''This book is a terrific read ... I could not put it down'' Matthew Restall, Literary ReviewThe ''conquistadores'', the early explorers and settlers of Spanish America, have become the stuff of legends and nightmares. In their own time, they were glorified as heroic adventurers, spreading Christian culture and helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. Today, they stand condemned for their cruelty and exploitation, as men who decimated the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs and the Incas, and carried out horrific atrocities in their pursuit of gold and glory.In Conquistadores, Mexican historian Fernando Cervantes cuts through the layers of myth and fiction to immerse the reader in the world of the late-medieval imperialist. It is a world as unfamiliar to us as the Indigenous peoples of the New World were to the conquistadores themselves. Drawing upon a wide range of sources including diaries, letters, chronicles and treatises, Cervantes reframes the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World, set against the political and intellectual landscape from which its main actors emerged. At the heart of the story are the conquistadores, whose epic ambitions and moral contradictions defined an era.From Columbus to Cortés, Pizarro and beyond, the explorers we think we know come alive in this thought-provoking and illuminating account of a period that irrevocably altered the course of world history.''Enlightening ... Conquistadores makes for fascinating reading'' Jude Webber, Financial TimesTrade ReviewLively, complex, compelling ... Cervantes is too good a historian to try to whitewash the half-century of conquistador activities that is his focus. Atrocities accompanied conquistadores wherever they went, and Cervantes seldom shies away from detailing and condemning them ... This book is a terrific read ... I could not put it down. -- Matthew Restall * Literary Review *The arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the Americas is one of the most exciting stories in history. Fernando Cervantes retells the story with learning and gusto, and is excellent on the wider context ... Blood flows at every turn, yet he persuasively argues that the conquistadors have been greatly misunderstood, and invites us to think again about one of the past's greatest turning points. -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *Enlightening ... For a vivid portrayal of a clash of very different cultures, each equally astonishing to the other, and a group of men who "whatever their myriad faults and crimes ... succeeded more or less through their own agency, in fundamentally transforming Spanish and European conceptions of the world in barely half a century", Conquistadores makes for fascinating reading. -- Jude Webber * Financial Times *Superb ... Conquistadores tells the story of the discovery and conquest of the New World, and tells it very well. His portraits of Cortés, Pizarro, Hernando de Soto and the other conquistadors are as vivid as one could wish. -- Daniel Johnson * The Critic *Superlative ... subtly recasts Columbus, Cortés and Pizarro as ambiguous figures rooted in medieval ideas of holy war as much as in greed for gold. -- David Abulafia * Times Literary Supplement *Cervantes places the conquest of the Americas in Spain's political context ... a rich portrait of a period that is almost unimaginable today ... a persuasive reassessment. -- Daniel Rey * The Spectator *A superb new look at the conquistadors that puts them in their true context. -- Simon Sebag MontefioreA veritable compendium on the Spanish conquest of the Americas ... the book is welcome, and it most certainly meets its goal of presenting the colonisers as real people ... Professor Cervantes is a talented man, and his book is staggeringly thorough. -- Camilla Townsend * BBC History Magazine *Cervantes skilfully constructs a complex story, packed with disturbing nuance, which obliterates that simplistic narrative of brutal conquistadors subduing innocent indigenes. The depth of research in this book is astonishing, but even more impressive is the analytical skill Cervantes applies to his discoveries. He is equally at home in cultural, literary, linguistic, artistic, economic and political history. All this sophisticated scholarship could so easily result in an unwieldy book, easy to admire, but difficult to read. Cervantes, however, conveys complex arguments in delightfully simple language, and most importantly knows how to tell a good story. -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times *I found it impossible to put down Conquistadores: A New History by Fernando Cervantes. The Spanish conquerors of the Americas, usually despised as brutal men driven only by greed for gold, are shown to be more sophisticated, often more respectful of the dignity of the indigenous people than their British equivalents. The friars, Franciscan and Dominican, play a key role in these dramatic events, with emergence of a new understanding of universal human rights. -- Timothy Radcliffe * The Tablet *One of the best crossover academic books I've read for a long time. It's approachable, but breaks new ground in its assessment of the Spanish conquerors of Latin and Central America. Cervantes pitches it perfectly, immersing readers in the mental world of these historical figures, tracing the connections between their ideas and the reality it created. -- Rory Rapple * The Tablet *Fernando Cervantes has written a superb account of a world-changing half-century, interweaving narrative and analysis to compelling effect. The conquistadors were ruthless men, and did unspeakable things, but Cervantes wants us to understand them, rather than merely condemn. His book brilliantly illuminates a world-view which was in some ways closer to that of the indigenous peoples the conquistadors overpowered than it is to ours. -- Peter Marshall, author of Heretics and Believers: A History of the English ReformationWith reason, evidence, common sense, uncompromising candour and disciplined imagination Fernando Cervantes makes the conquistadores believable. He guides us expertly through the moral labyrinth of empire, amid warts and wonders, sins and saints, crimes and creativity. -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came To Think ItA brilliant account of the men, from Columbus to Pizarro, who conquered and settled most of Central and South America. Fernando Cervantes tells a complex, subtle and persuasive story of their actions. It is a story not only of simple, brutal, conquest - but also of cooperation, of shifting alliances, of the infiltration of Europeans into regions which had for long been zones of almost ceaseless conflict, and of prolonged, if ultimately frustrated, attempts to build a society which would fuse European and indigenous legal, social and political systems. The entire history of European imperialism and colonization is in urgent need of complete revision. Conquistadors is an evocative, courageous, and immensely readable beginning. -- Anthony Pagden, author of The Enlightenment: And Why It Still MattersWritten with narrative flair and meticulous erudition, this splendid book strips away the stubborn fantasies and prejudices which tend to characterise accounts of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Drawing on up-to-date scholarship, it describes the late-medieval mindset of the conquistadors and analyses the sophisticated political culture of the Spanish Monarchy to show how, from the violent encounters of mutually alien peoples, there emerged multi-ethnic and culturally diverse societies which proved to be surprisingly resilient and stable over three hundred years. This is an indispensable contribution to our understanding of the historical roots of our globalized world. -- Edwin Williamson, author of The Penguin History of Latin America

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Brisk and thoughtful, this book could hardly be more timely'' Dominic Sandbrook, BBC History Magazine, Books of the YearFrom a preeminent scholar of Eastern Europe and the prize-winning author of Chernobyl, the essential history of Russian imperialismIn 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and attempted to seize a portion of Ukraine. While the world watched in outrage, this violation of national sovereignty was in fact only the latest iteration of a centuries-long effort to expand Russian boundaries and create a pan-Russian nation. In Lost Kingdom, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues that we can only understand the merging of imperialism and nationalism in Russia today by delving into its history.Spanning over two thousand years, from the end of the Mongol rule to the present day, Plokhy shows how leaders from Ivan the Terrible to Joseph Stalin to Vladimir Putin have exploited existing forms of identity, warfare and territorial expansion to achieve imperial supremacy. A strikingly ambitious book, Lost Kingdom chronicles the long and belligerent history of Russia''s empire and nation-building quest.Trade ReviewLost Kingdom tells the story of how the history of Russia was being written when that history was being made. . . A singularly fascinating account of Russian nationalism through the ages -- Charles Clover * Financial Times *A sweeping study. . . Not merely an intellectual exercise but one closely linked to contemporary geostrategic debates * Wall Street Journal *Brisk and thoughtful, this book could hardly be more timely -- Dominic Sandbrook * BBC History Magazine *Lost Kingdom is an erudite exploration of the contradictions of Russian nationalism. . . A master historian on top of his game, Serhii Plokhy lays out the challenges this past presents for transforming Russia into a better country for its people and its neighbours -- Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World HistoryIn Lost Kingdom, Serhii Plokhy does for Russia what only great historians can do-make the connections between the distant past and vital present feel relevant and alive. . . With Russia everywhere in the news today, and every pundit pretending to be an expert, Lost Kingdom is essential reading for those wishing to understand Russia beyond the headlines -- Garry Kasparov

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Thrilling, tremendously enjoyable'' The New York Times''A nail-biting escape story'' Financial TimesAt the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill already believed he was destined for greatness. This is the incredible story of how one incredible year in Churchill''s life - an adventure involving war in South Africa, imprisonment, endurance and escape - would be the making of one of the most extraordinary men in history. ''Few can match the originality and narrative power of Candice Millard''s elegantly written and surprisingly revealing account of the young Churchill''s exploits'' Saul David, Daily Telegraph''A thrilling account ... This book is an awesome nail-biter and top-notch character study rolled into one'' Jennifer Senior, The New York Times, Books of the YearGripping ... thrilling ... Millard tells it with gusto ... casts an interestingly oblique light on Churchill''s personality, and on a traumatic wTrade ReviewCompletely engrossing -- Andrew RobertsUsing many unpublished sources, she weaves into a nail-biting escape story a larger picture of Africa at the cusp of the 20th century. Her eye for humanising detail, her vivid topographical descriptions and her keen awareness of the realities (and surrealities) of war come together in a truly fascinating book. -- Lucy Lethbridge * Financial Times *A gripping story [that] casts an interestingly oblique light on Churchill's personality, and on a traumatic war. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer *This is a tremendously readable and enjoyable book ... She aims to retell the story in a thrilling contemporary style for a generation of readers, and in this she succeeds. Most historians will have cause to envy her narrative ability. -- Alex von Tunzelmann * The New York Times Book Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisKehinde Andrews is a crucial voice walking in a proud tradition of Black radical criticism and action AkalaAn uncompromising account of the roots of racism today Kimberlé Crenshaw This clear-eyed analysis insists upon the revolutionary acts of freedom we will need to break out of these systems of violence Ibram X. Kendi The New Age of Empire takes us back to the beginning of the European Empires, outlining the deliberate terror and suffering wrought during every stage of the expansion, and destroys the self-congratulatory myth that the West was founded on the three great revolutions of science, industry and politics. Instead, genocide, slavery and colonialism are the key foundation stones upon which the West was built, and we are still living under this system today: America is now at the helm, perpetuating global inequality through business, government, and institutions like the UN, the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. The West is rich because the Rest is poor. Capitalism is racism. The West congratulations itself on raising poverty by increments in the developing world while ignoring the fact that it created these conditions in the first place, and continues to perpetuate them. The Enlightenment, which underlies every part of our foundational philosophy today, was and is profoundly racist. This colonial logic was and is used to justify the ransacking of Black and brown bodies and their land. The fashionable solutions offered by the white Left in recent years fall far short of even beginning to tackle the West''s place at the helm of a racist global order. Offering no easy answers, The New Age of Empire is essential reading to understand our profoundly corrupt global system. A work of essential clarity, The New Age of Empire is a groundbreaking new blueprint for taking Black Radical thought into the twenty-first century and beyond.Trade ReviewKehinde Andrews shines a light on the truth of our past and in doing so lights the way forward. Essential reading -- Owen JonesAn uncompromising account of the roots of racism today -- Kimberlé CrenshawSkillfully interweaving economics, politics, and history to debunk popular narratives of social progress, this searing takedown hits home * Publisher's Weekly *Kehinde Andrews is a crucial voice walking in a proud tradition of Black radical criticism and action -- AkalaThis book is a provocation. It is not meant to make us comfortable or inspired, but rather to remind us of the hard truth that the West was built on slavery, genocide, and colonialism-the bases of racial capitalism and modern empire. And as Kehinde Andrews argues, we are still living this imperial nightmare, still reaping the consequences of contemporary racialized violence and exploitation. The lesson: no freedom under racism, no future under capitalism, no justice without decolonization. -- Robin KelleyProfessor Andrews takes the reader on a journey, and it isn't a comfortable one. I challenge you to pick up this book and read it carefully, once that is done, I am sure the reader will be challenged, in thinking and hopefully actions moving forward. -- Dawn ButlerThis book is a radical, necessary indictment of the racist structures that produced the current anti-Black world order. Historically rigorous and deeply researched, Kehinde Andrews writes with lucidity about the global tactics of Western imperialism, centuries ago and at present. His clear-eyed analysis insists upon the revolutionary acts of freedom we will need to break out of these systems of violence -- Ibram X. KendiProfessor Andrews never misses. And this is a compelling account of European Empires and the cost of their plunder -- Nikesh ShuklaUncompromising and intelligent. Kehinde is taking the conversation deeper and further - exactly where it needs to go. -- Jeffrey BoakyeDestined to serve as a kind of primary text for a new generation of students of antiracism looking to get to grips with the violence of our imperial inheritance * The Observer *

Read more less

Book Synopsis''A work of exhilarating scope and relevance ... What a rare and powerful experience to feel a book in your very body'' Naomi Klein''Health is not something we can attain as individuals, for ourselves, hermetically sealed off from the world around us. An injury to one is an injury to all.''Our bodies, societies and planet are inflamed. In this boldly original book, renowned political economist Raj Patel teams up with physician Rupa Marya to illuminate the hidden relationships between human health and the profound injustices of our political and economic systems. In doing so, they offer a radical new cure: the deep medicine of decolonization.Journeying through the human body - our digestive, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems - Marya and Patel show how inflammation is connected not just to the food that we eat, the air that we breathe and access to healthcare, but is also linked to the traumatic events we experience and the very model of health that doctors practice: one which takes things apart, rather than seeking to bring ideas and lived experiences together.Combining the latest scholarship on globalization and biology with the stories of patients in marginalized communities and the wisdom of Indigenous groups, Inflamed points the way toward a medicine that heals what has been divided and has the potential to transform not only our bodies but the world.Trade ReviewA work of exhilarating scope and relevance to this infected moment in the body politic. Inflamed mixes medicine, argument, and metaphor into a post-pandemic poultice: reading it is the first step in the deep medicine it prescribes. What a rare and powerful experience to feel a book in your very body. -- Naomi Klein * author of On Fire *Provocative and thought provoking. . . a reckoning with modern medicine . . . At each physiological juncture, the co-authors relate the malfunctions of human biology to the inadequacies of our political and economic systems -- Andrew Zaleski * GQ *A compelling book on the social and environmental roots of our poor health... the writers combine their respective expertise to analyse the workings of these cells and organs, and to interrogate how they have been disrupted by our modern constructs of capitalism, colonialism, extractivism and individualism, amongst others -- Rachel Andrews * Irish Times *Urgent, impeccably researched . . . a subversive political analysis . . . remarkably lucid -- Aarathi Prasad * Guardian *A remarkably powerful analysis . . . compelling detail . . . a revolutionary book that calls for courageous action to dismantle those structures that harm the health of people and the planet and to rebuild ones that centre care -- Aletha Maybank * The Lancet *At last! A book about medicine and healthcare that is holistic in the broadest sense in that it integrates histories of colonialism, conflict and inequality with alternative forms of knowledge. And all that while remaining compellingly readable and engaging. -- Amitav Ghosh * author of Jungle Nama and Gun Island *Science and medicine are often treated as fields that are subtracted from social movements, separate from the struggle for power that billions of human beings are embroiled in and abstracted from the material conditions around us. Luckily for us, Rupa Marya and Raj Patel are out here making these connections and encouraging us to see these as processes we all must take ownership of as we fight to have control of our surroundings. This book is on fire. -- Boots Riley * frontperson for The Coup and Writer/Director of Sorry to Bother You *A critique of the wreckage of capitalism and colonialism for our time--beautifully written, storytelling at its best. This book can change your life. -- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz * author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States *Compelling reading... It encourages both clinicians and members of the public to look at their health intrinsically linked to other people, their own community, the environment, as well as the politics and economics of their country, and more broadly, the world -- Dipesh Gopal * BJGP Life *Inflamed takes the reader on a journey deep inside the human body . . . In doing so, it reveals how external inequalities affect these systems and cause serious harm -- Layla Liverpool * New Scientist *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisQuantifiable citizenship in the form of birth certificates, census forms, and immigration quotas is so ubiquitous that today it appears ahistorical. Yet before the modern colonial era, there was neither a word for population in the sense of numbers of people, nor agreement that monarchs should count their subjects. Much of the work of naturalizing the view that people can be represented as populations took place far outside government institutions and philosophical treatises. It occurred instead in the work of colonial writers who found in the act of counting a way to imagine fixed boundaries between intermingling groups. Counting Bodies explores the imaginative, personal, and narrative writings that performed the cultural work of normalizing the enumeration of bodies. By repositioning and unearthing a literary pre-history of population science, the book shows that representing individuals as numbers was a central element of colonial projects. Early colonial writings that describe routine and even intimate interactions offer a window into the way people wove the quantifiable forms of subjectivity made available by population counts into everyday life. Whether trying to make sense of plantation slavery, frontier warfare, rapid migration, or global commerce, writers framed questions about human relationships across different cultures and generations in terms of population.Trade ReviewFarrell's Counting Bodies examines ways of counting people in the British Colonial Atlantic using forms of literature such as poetry, captivity narratives and travel writing and mortality bills. Farrell makes the claim that such texts, disparate as they may be, nonetheless offer insight into what she terms 'human accounting' in the seventeenth and eighteenth century colonial context. * Philippa Chun, British Society for Literature and Science *I was continually excited by this book, and was especially struck by the way that Farrell's focus on the literary representation of population, and particularly on bodies that are difficult to count, might open up new possibilities for thinking about the complexity and variability of colonial American ideas of community. I'm persuaded, for example, that her book can help us think about colonial understandings of disability, another form of human categorization that was just beginning to emerge during this period. ... Just as important, however, is her careful attention to how writers in early America obstructed, disallowed, and resisted this kind of counting. Farrell's book is worth thinking with, and I'm eager to see how her methods and conclusions might further expand and enliven our understanding of what it meant to count and be counted in colonial communities. * Nicholas Junkerman, Common Place *Counting Bodies takes a very stimulating approach to its subject matter, and as an alternative route to understanding the emergence of population ideas it is to be welcomed. * Robert J. Mayhew, Journal of Historical Geography *If we take the counting of bodies today as an ordinary act of the state, Farrell invites us to consider a time when counting bodies was unusual and, further, takes us deep into the historical quandaries surrounding the counting of bodies. What is a countable body? Where does one body stop and another begin? In this book, Farrell brilliantly sounds the literary pre-history of the concept of population on colonial ground, illuminating the work that gender and race perform in the history of settler colonialism and European imperial expansion in early America. * Elizabeth Dillon, author of New World Drama: The Performative Commons in the Atlantic World, 1649-1849 *By providing the reader with insight into the history of biopolitics before 'biopolitics' became the chief method of government, Farrell accomplishes something quite remarkable. Still more to her credit, she adds to the growing archive of early American texts by exploring the aesthetic dimension of literature, which doubled the perspective of these same procedures to expose the blindnesses induced by numerical representations of human life. * Leonard Tennenhouse, author of Power on Display: The Politics of Shakespeare's Genres *This is a marvellously rich reading of the conceptual logics associated with counting peoples. Treating colonialism, mortality, race and constitutionalism, Counting Bodies offers a compelling poetics of the enumerative imagination. It powerfully highlights the political implications of counting people * dead, alive or unbornpopulating the margins of systems of race, gender and religion.Peter Thompson, co-editor of State and Citizen: British America and the Early United States *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: Stories of Cataclysm and Population Chapter 1: Poetics of the Ark Ashore Chapter 2: Measuring Caribbean Aesthetics Chapter 3: Counting in King Philip's War Chapter 4: The Death and Life of Colonial Mortality Bills Epilogue: Mourning the Figure of Three-fifths Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe expansion of the British Empire facilitated movement across the globe for both the colonizers and the colonized. Waiting on Empire focuses on a largely forgotten group in this story of movement and migration: South Asian travelling ayahs (servants and nannies), who travelled between India and Britain and often found themselves destitute in Britain as they struggled to find their way home to South Asia.Delving into the stories of individual ayahs from a wide range of sources, Arunima Datta illuminates their brave struggle to assert their rights, showing how ayahs negotiated their precarious employment conditions, capitalized on social sympathy amongst some sections of the British population, and confronted or collaborated with various British institutions and individuals to demand justice and humane treatment.In doing so, Datta re-imagines the experience of waiting. Waiting is a recurrent human experience, yet it is often marginalized. It takes a particular form within complex bureaucratized societies in which the marginalized inevitably wait upon those with power over them. Those who wait are often discounted as passive, inactive victims. This book shows that, in spite of their precarious position, the travelling ayahs of the British empire were far from this stereotype.Trade ReviewWaiting on Empire is a landmark book, giving long overdue attention to the most significant population of colonized women workers in Victorian Britain. Ayahs enabled British colonizers to maintain families despite their global mobility, critical to the resilience of British imperial rule. This beautifully written book restores these neglected women to the historical record, offering a sophisticated interpretation of women's agency and deftly recasting traveling ayahs as knowledgeable, enterprising, and resourceful skilled workers. * Laura Tabili, Professor of Modern European History, University of Arizona *This book forever changes the history of domestic colonial service. Datta argues that traveling ayahs are a prism for the workings of imperial power from both above and below. Readers will be stunned by the photographic archive she has curated and by the way she practices care work for the subjects she so brilliantly moves out of the waiting room of history. * Antoinette Burton, author of The Trouble with Empire *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: Mobile Caregivers for the Empire 1: Becoming Travelling Ayahs and Supporting the Empire: Historical And Contextual Background 2: Waiting in the Heart of Empire: Abandoned Travelling Ayahs and the Contradictions of a Liberal Empire 3: Creative Resilience in Contexts of Crisis: Making Arguments and Evoking Sympathy 4: Capitalizing on Waiting: Creative Use of Time by Travelling Ayahs 5: Travelling Ayahs and Ayahs' Homes: Humanitarianism, Evangelism and Profit 6: Travellers' Tales: Negotiating Waiting in Wars And

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs Algeria became connected to international news networks during French colonial rule in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this study examines how news spread through communities and across social divides, how new media changed the communication landscape, and how surveillance by the French government played a role.Trade ReviewAsseraf provides a wealth of new perspectives on information, engagement and resistance in colonial Algeria, and opens new lines of enquiry for scholars of news and media in North Africa and elsewhere. * Charlotte Ann Legg, Journal of North African Studies *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Abbreviations Introduction 1: Magical Printing 2: Arab Telephone 3: War-Time 4: Old Waves 5: Palestine the Martyr Epilogue Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFor four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the US Army''s massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus''s fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard rTrade Reviewhighly informative book * Socialist Standard *vivid and relentless ... meticulous analysis ... a devastating reassessment of the Conquest as nothing less than a holy war * Kirkus Reviews *Table of ContentsPrologue Part I: Before Columbus Part II: Pestilence and Genocide Part III: Sex, Race, and Holy War Appendixes Appendix I: On Pre-Columbian Settlement and Population Appendix II: On Racism and Genocide Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAlgeria sits at the crossroads of the Atlantic, European, Arab and African worlds. Yet, unlike the colonial wars in Korea and Vietnam, the Algerian war for independence has rarely been viewed as a primarily international conflict. Rather, prevailing accounts of the war interpret it as a domestic French crisis that was resolved when Charles de Gaulle granted Algeria independence. Yet, as Matthew Connelly here demonstrates, from the very start of the bloody eight year struggle, the Front de Liberation Nationale pursued self-rule on the world stage. Exploiting Cold War competition and regional rivalries, the spread of mass communications, and international and non-governmental organisations, such as human rights groups, foreign press conferences, and the United Nations, the rebels harnessed international forces to bring pressure to bear on the French government, which became obsessed with the conflict''s impact on its reputation. By winning rights and recognition from the global communityTrade Review... indispensable for any detailed study of the Algerian war. * The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History *This book must rate as one of the most important works not only on Algeria but also on decolonisation that has appeared in recent years. It is fully and meticulously researched, the chapter sequence admirably structured, and the writing, despite the complexities of the argument, clear and effective. * The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History *The book is well-written, thought provoking, thoroughly documented (67 pages of notes, 25 of bibliography), and altogether a welcome contribution to the literature on the Algerian war. Coming at a moment of re-examination of the war in France, with the recent confirmations of the practice of torture put forward by General Aussaresses and other participants in this great human drama, it is timely as well. * The Journal of North African Studies *... a well-researched and provocatively fresh account of one of the great episodes of twentieth-century decolonisation. * The Journal of North African Studies *Connelly offers a novel interpretation of the struggle between France and the Algerian nationalists, seeing it as a harbinger of the post-Cold War international system. * The Journal of North African Studies *[Connelly's] multiarchival research is impressive, especially his pioneering work in the recently available Algerian records. Above all, he has taken an innovative analytical approach, and engaging alternative to traditional diplomatic historiography. * The International History Review *

Read more less

Book Synopsis'To Try Her Fortune in London' considers white colonials as part of the colonial presence at the heart of the empire. Between 1870 and 1940 tens of thousands of Australian women were drawn to London. This title explores previously unexamined connections between whiteness, colonial status, gender, and modernity.Trade ReviewWoollacott's comprehensive study provides rich evidence that a newfound freedom and mobility allowed ambitious Australian women to have an influence in London disproportionate to their number, and this work will prove an influential contribution to our understanding of London, imperialism and the Australian abroad. * Urban History *This book is an important contribution to a growing literature on the international dimensions of the Australian women's movement, as well as the recent interest in relationships within the British Empire/Commonwealth. * American Historical Review *

Read more less

Book SynopsisAt its height, the Russian empire covered eleven time zones and stretched from Scandinavia to the Pacific Ocean. Arguing against the traditional historical view that Russia, surrounded and threatened by enemies, was always on the defensive, John P. LeDonne contends that Russia developed a long-term strategy not in response to immediate threats but in line with its own expansionist urges to control the Eurasian Heartland. LeDonne narrates how the government from Moscow and Petersburg expanded the empire by deploying its army as well as by extending its patronage to frontier societies in return for their serving the interests of the empire. He considers three theaters on which the Russians expanded: the Western (Baltic, Germany, Poland); the Southern (Ottoman and Persian Empires); and the Eastern (China, Siberia, Central Asia). In his analysis of military power, he weighs the role of geography and locale, as well as economic issues, in the evolution of a larger imperial strategy. Rather Trade ReviewA fascinating fusion of geopolitics and military history. * Jeremy Black, Times Higher Education *does contain some interesting ideas * Robert I Frost, The English Historical Review *his work alters the way we think about grand strategy and presents Russia more systematically than one normally expects; and for this achievement LeDonne deserves praise. * Ab Imperio *[a] detailed analytical exposition. * British Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWith startling speed, Spanish conquistadors invaded hundreds of Native American kingdoms, took over the mighty empires of the Aztecs and Incas, and initiated an unprecedented redistribution of the world''s resources and balance of power. They changed the course of history, but the myth they established was even stranger than their real achievements. This Very Short Introduction deploys the latest scholarship to shatter and replace the traditional narrative. Chapters explore New World civilizations prior to the invasions, the genesis of conquistador culture on both sides of the Atlantic, the roles black Africans and Native Americans played and the consequences of the invasions. The book reveals who the conquistadors were and what made their adventures possible. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade Review[a] sparkling little book ... Richly packed with maps, sources and intriguing nuggets of information. * BBC History Magazine *Table of ContentsPreface ; Ch 1 A Great Many Hardships ; Ch 2 Many Victories, Great Conquests ; Ch 3 To Give Account of Whom I Am ; Ch 4 By a Miracle of God ; Ch 5 A Shortcut to the Grave ; Further Reading

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis is an important collection of essays focusing on pre-colonial trade and African-European interaction, looking at western Africa between Senegal and Sierra Leone. It spans the whole pre-colonial period between the first Portuguese voyages of discovery and the transition to legitimate commerce in the 19th century.Trade ReviewOverall, the collection successfully engages with important themes concerning the creation and maintenance of intercontinental exchanges, and the development of Creole communities. It is possible to overdo concepts such as the Black Atlantic, suggesting a false unity through a perceived shared geography; this book wisely avoids that trap, by gathering particularistic, detailed studies with rich individual biographies, and giving them cohesion through the overarching theme of brokers. * Anne Haour, English Historical Review *Historians of coastal West African societies, of the slave trade, and of transnational interchange within the Atlantic commercial world will find solid evidence and interesting interpretations in these essays. It is clear that the contributors have read each other's work from the intelligent cross-referencing included ... well worth reading. * Kenneth Morgan, The Economic History Review *This is an important volume, bringing together junior and senior scholars who use new data to bring the debate on brokerage and its cultural and economic relevance into the pre-twentieth-century period...Scholars interested in African, Atlantic, and early modern history must read this significant volume. * Mariana Candido, Luso-Brazillian Review *Brokers of Change is a welcome addition to the under-represented field of pre-colonial Africa that presents Western Africa as a coherent space of insular and riverine connectivity. * Ghislaine Lydon, Early Modern History *Table of Contents1: AFRICAN-EUROPEAN RELATIONS; 2: THE ATLANTIC DIMENSION; 3: THE INSULAR ATLANTIC; 4: TRADE IN SLAVES AND COMMODITIES; 5: "POST-SLAVERY"

Read more less