British Empire

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  7/5/2023
  

  New Research Shows British Industrialization Drew Ironworking Methods from Colonized and Enslaved Jamaicans

  A process for producing wrought iron from scrap had been credited to Henry Cort. But Cort likely adopted it from a Jamaican works operated by 76 Black metallurgists, including enslaved workers. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  6/1/2023
  

  British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"

  Historian Nicolas Bell-Romero found that influential Cambridge backers were happy to learn of the links between the university and famous abolitionists, but not on the university's historical links to an imperial elite that benefitted from the slave trade, part of a broad battle about the politics of British history. 

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• SOURCE: History Workshop
  5/11/2023
  

  Ayahs, Amahs and Empire: The History of Domestic Care Work under Colonialism

  by Julia Laite

  The history of domestic and child care work has become increasingly robust, but museums and public exhibitions have struggled to find ways to represent the work and experiences of women, many from south Asia, who traveled with white colonial families to perform this labor, putting marginalized people in charge of the empire's children. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/5/2023
  

  Why More of the Anglophone World Wants to Ditch the British Crown

  “There is a growing gap between Britain’s perception of its own empire and how it’s perceived everywhere else,” said William Dalrymple, a prominent historian of British India. “And that gap keeps growing.”

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• SOURCE: Oxford UP Blog
  4/24/2023
  

  Where to Look for the Evidence of Colonial Violence

  by Erik Linstrum

  The British government's efforts to conceal potentially embarrasing records as decolonization accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s means that historians need to know where to look for contemporary evidence of the violence of colonization and counterinsurgent tactics. 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  4/18/2023
  

  Review: Lingering Ghosts of British Empire

  by Priya Satia

  Journalist Sathnam Sanghera insists that British education needs to renew a focus on empire to allow students to understand the global significance of empire and colonialism in the present, particularly as contemporary Brits debate the merits of a multicultural society. 

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• SOURCE: North American Conference on British Studies
  4/6/2023
  

  The Pugilistic Pastor: Nigel Biggar and the Imperial History Wars

  by Dane Kennedy

  The recent "Colonialism" won’t win over many historians, but it isn’t meant to. Its target audience is right-wing ideologues, whose grievances and opinions it both echoes and enhances.

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• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  3/15/2023
  

  Brits Don't Need to Compare Refugee Policy to Nazis—British History is Cruel Enough

  by Priyamvada Gopal

  "As its government demonises undocumented people seeking shelter today, it is worth remembering that Britain has historically been more a refugee-making country than a refugee-taking one."

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• SOURCE: NPR
  1/7/2023
  

  How Barbados's Reparations Movement Found the International Spotlight

  The availability of clear records tying British families – like that of actor Benedict Cumberbatch – to Caribbean slavery has made the movement for reparations in Barbados and other island nations very visible, if not yet successful. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  9/27/2022
  

  The Ostensibly Apolitical Nature of the Royals Explains Americans' Obsession

  by Suzanne Schneider

  The Royals appeal to an American fantasy of power without politics, in which civility and decorum conceal the process of determining a society's winners and losers. 

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• SOURCE: AlterNet
  9/10/2022
  

  Andrew Roberts Blows Up on MSNBC Over Queen's Link to Colonialism

  The British historian and host Ali Velshi butted heads over the mentioning of colonialism and its part in the late Queen's legacy. 

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• 8/14/2022
  

  Not All Roads Lead to Kashmir

  by Andrew Howard

  A recent tragedy on a historically contentious railway route shows that decisions about infrastructure development are made with symbolic and emotional considerations as well as pragmatic ones.

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  

  Review Essay: The Bloody Business of the British Conquest of Nigeria

  by Adewale Maja-Pearce

  Self-serving stories of the civilizing mission of British Christianity paper over the brutality of colonialism. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  3/28/2022
  

  The British Empire Was Worse Than You Probably Think

  Historian Elizabeth Elkins's new book on the British Empire "contends that Britain’s use of systematic violence was no better than that of its rivals. The British were simply more skilled at hiding it."

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• SOURCE: Slate
  3/30/2022
  

  You Can't Teach "Pros and Cons" When it Comes to Empire

  by Priya Satia

  Far from encouraging critical thinking, the "balance sheet" approach to teaching historical atrocities like slavery or imperialism flatters the mythologies created by the powerful to excuse violence against others, says a historian of empire and parent of a high school student. 

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• SOURCE: Substack
  2/24/2022
  

  We, The Abuser State

  by Jules Gill-Peterson

  Texas's announcement of a policy defining some support for transgender youth as "child abuse" echoes the abuses of colonial authorities on gendered minority groups. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/29/2021
  

  Barbados Declares Republic, Rejects Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State

  Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced last year that the nation of 300,000 would become a republic by Tuesday, the 55th anniversary of its independence.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/01/2021
  

  Records of 320,000 Punjab Soldiers from Great War Uncovered`

  The records have the potential to fill gaps in understanding and even dispel popular myths and misunderstandings about the participation of South Asian troops in the British military in World War 1. 

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• SOURCE: Reuters
  10/6/2021
  

  Britain's Financial Hub Confronts its Involvement with Slavery

  "Lloyd's and the Bank of England have each hired a historian to delve into their roles in the slave trade and are planning on publicizing the results in the next year."

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  8/18/2021
  

  The US Repeated Mistakes of the Past in Afghanistan

  by Ali A. Olomi

  "By flooding Afghanistan with payoffs, bribes and aid, the British created a system of endemic corruption in which local chieftains and favorable bureaucrats would enrich themselves while the rest of the country remained relatively poor."