Read this book, it's good.

I really enjoyed this, it is beautifully written and read by the author; it was for me a lot of disparate threads that I was more or less aware of, woven together in a (to me) novel and highly instructive way. I found I understood a lot of things differently by the end of the book, and I felt strongly how lacking my British education has been in so many areas.

5 people found this helpful

Decolonising everything benefits you!

The theses of this book are old.

That poverty is not innate to Africa or Asia but is a consequence of an extractive economic system in which Euro-American, Asian and African elites collaborate to the detriment of billions of working class people.

That the tactics of empire - old or new - all too often come home to roost, whether it’s the deployment of anti-Mau Mau tactics in Northern Ireland or the disciplining of labour and the dismantling of state provision of basic services to yield higher profits.

That the culture wars being waged by the ruling class and their media talking heads is a distraction - that irrelevances such as removing portraits of the queen or even arguing about street names covers up the on-going robbery both of British working class people and the former subjects of empire by the capitalists.

It’s accessible,it threw in a few details about Jamaican and Singaporean political history I didn’t know, the authors voice is pretty mellifluous, all in all this gets a good rating from me.

2 people found this helpful

Highly Recommend Reading

A really easy read which helps to explain the connection between empire and its legacy and the ever increasing wealth inequality that exists not just in the world but within our nations and cities.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent book everyone should listen to it.

A good look at the history of the British empire and it's legacy. A subject few British people know about. Well narrated by the writer.

Excellent

A very engaging book which very helpfully unfolded a comprehensive account of the legacies of the British empire that we all need to hear. I liked the insight into the authors own perspectives from his cultural heritage in Ghana. A brilliant account

Thought-provoking, beautifully written.

An excellent historical context to the recent events that have shaped our lives. Essential reading!

Great reading of a great book

bought the book after listening to Kojo’s thoughtful interview on the excellent podcast ‘The Dig’ with Daniel Denvir, am glad I did.

Desperately needed insight and perspective

A well structured and easy to follow work that nonetheless paints a detailed, highly informative picture of its subject. Hugely important for listeners to remember that to teach history and economics in this way in schools is becoming a matter of state prohibition in the UK and some parts of the USA.

Perhaps as an old Brython of low class, I can already sense a little that my white skin is no protection against the same fate that has befallen Africans and Asians at the hands of extractive corporate capitalism. History runs deep. This is the great beauty and importance of this work. Those of us who are white are conditioned to believe that somehow our whiteness gives us some divine protection against the evils of mass poverty. We believe it so sub consciously, we do not question it. Actually, the same machine that has caused such huge global inequality in the first place is again being turned against us, as it was previous bleaker ages, if only we remembered.

The hypocrisy of nativist-backed global finance and state-funded free markets is laid bare herein for the massive scam that it is against (nearly) all of us. Honestly one of the best books I’ve come across in years, and still there is so much more to say. Thanks, Dr. Karam.

Brilliant

Incisive, enlightening and I hope will add one of many more much needed footnotes about British history.

The book I never knew I needed

Topical, to the point and hard hitting,
The history boomerang causing the issues britain faces today, from singapore to Kingstown, Koram delivers a well researched and seamlessly woven narrative of britains most neglected relationship - that with her 'commonwealth'.