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How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain
by Sathnam Sanghera
A bestselling journalist's illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism.
Empire—whether British or otherwise—informs nearly everything we do. From common thought to our daily routines; from the foundations of social safety nets to the realities of racism; and from the distrust of public intellectuals to the exceptionalism that permeates immigration debates, the Brexit campaign and the global reckonings with controversial memorials, Empireland shows how the pernicious legacy of Western imperialism undergirds our everyday lives, yet remains shockingly obscured from view.
In accessible, witty prose, award-winning journalist and best-selling author Sathnam Sanghera traces this legacy back to its source, exposing how—in both profound and innocuous ways—imperial domination has shaped the United Kingdom we know today. Sanghera connects the historical dots across continents and seas to show how the shadows of a colonial past still linger over modern-day Britain and how the world, in turn, was shaped by Britain's looming hand. The implications, of course, extend to Britain's most notorious former colony turned imperial power: the United States of America, which prides itself for its maverick soul and yet seems to have inherited all the ambition, brutality and exceptional thinking of its parent.
With a new introduction by the author and a foreword by Booker Prize-winner Marlon James, Empireland is a revelatory and lucid work of political history that offers a sobering appraisal of the past so we may move toward a more just future.
"Readers whose familiarity with British history and culture is not acute may find themselves reaching for external context at times, but Sanghera's exploration of the topic is consistently lively and just as often laugh-out-loud funny as it is deeply painful...The sun may have set on the British Empire, but this piercing examination of its legacies is thoroughly timely." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] pointed and wide-ranging survey of how Britain's imperialist past informs its present...Ranging across the temporal length and geographical breadth of the empire, Sanghera amasses a devastating catalog of tragedies and injustices, and makes an irrefutable case that 'imperial amnesia' hurts all Britons. It's a cogent and captivating wake-up call." - Publishers Weekly
This information about Empireland was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sathnam Sanghera is the bestselling author of Empireland, Marriage Material, and his memoir, The Boy with the Topknot. A graduate from Christ's College, Cambridge, columnist and writer at The Times, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Sanghera lives in North London.
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