Empireland : How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain

‘This remarkable book shines the brightest of lights into some of the darkest and most misunderstood corners of our shared history’ James O’Brien

In his brilliantly illuminating new book Sathnam Sanghera demonstrates how so much of what we consider to be modern Britain is actually rooted in our imperial past. In prose that is, at once, both clear-eyed and full of acerbic wit, Sanghera shows how our past is everywhere: from how we live to how we think, from the foundation of the NHS to the nature of our racism, from our distrust of intellectuals in public life to the exceptionalism that imbued the campaign for Brexit and the government’s early response to the Covid crisis. And yet empire is a subject, weirdly hidden from view.

The British Empire ran for centuries and covered vast swathes of the world. It is, as Sanghera reveals, fundamental to understanding Britain. However, even among those who celebrate the empire there seems to be a desire not to look at it too closely – not to include the subject in our school history books, not to emphasize it too much in our favourite museums.

‘Lucid but never simplistic; entertaining but never frivolous; intensely readable while always mindful of nuance and complexity – Empireland takes a perfectly-judged approach to its contentious but necessary subject’ Jonathan Coe