Alan Lester University of Sussex and La Trobe University Winston Churchill is an iconic figure. For many, he stands for the idealised qualities of the British nation: a bulldog spirit leavened with a sense of fair play and deep attachment…
Blog Archives
When the Raj Came to Brighton
In the early stages of World War I, the Raj came to the south coast of England in the form of over 4,000 wounded Indian soldiers. They convalesced in a number of specially constructed hospitals, including in the Brighton Pavilion.…
The Debate on British Colonialism
Alan Lester Colonial Realities Colonialism is, by its very nature, incompatible with many of the ideals of justice that we hold dear today. The definition of the word, according to the Oxford Online Dictionary, is “the policy or practice of…
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On Colonialism: A Response to Nigel Biggar’s Reply
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History has recently published my Extended Critique of Nigel Biggar’s book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning. Prof. Biggar’s Reply was published alongside it. Like his history of colonialism, Biggar’s reply has unorthodox features, some of…
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Indians in Eastern Africa: Sir Henry Bartle Frere’s Vision and the Networks of Empire*
The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and former and current Home Secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman are all second generation Indian East Africans. Families like theirs acquired a precarious status, subordinate to White settlers and officials but elevated above…
Tagged with: British Empire, India, Kenya, Priti Patel, Rishi Sunak, South Africa, Suella Braverman, Uganda
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What are the British Empire’s “Legacies”?
Before he became a beleaguered Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng wrote that “generations of politicians, historians and campaigners have made the British empire in their own image, promoting it as a vehicle for whatever cause they happen to espouse”. Since then, his…
The War on Woke is 200 years Old
One of the Brexit populists’ most successful political strategies, played out in the recent Tory leadership contest, has been culture war: an assault on reformist and liberal agendas including anti-racism, that are now condemned as “woke”. With Suella Braverman Priti…
Where is Empathy in the Empire Culture War?
The problem with making the history of the British empire a weapon in a divisive culture war is its omission of empathy. Conservatives, exemplified by The Telegraph’s editorial line, feel that radical activists are determined to see Empire as an…
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Nadhim Zahawi and the Iraqi Civil Service: a benefit of empire we should teach our kids?
The Education secretary has now joined the Equalities Minister, arguing that the ‘positives’ of the British Empire should be taught to British schoolchildren. As if they haven’t been taught to us all for the last one hundred years. Nadhim Zahawi’s…
The British Empire and Race: A Debate with Robert Tombs
Alan Lester Background: On 9th January 2022, Robert Tombs, Emeritus Professor of French History at the University of Cambridge and myself debated the legacies of the British empire, all too briefly, on the GB TV News Channel’s The Debate programme.…
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