Here you can find books on colonialism and empires, covering various empires and the experience of colonisers and colonised. The conquest of the Americas and the British empire loom large. Bernard Bailyn, professor of history at Harvard University chooses his best books on Atlantic history and how European expansion from the 16th century knitted together the Americas, Europe and Africa. Colin Calloway, professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth selects his best books on Native Americans and colonisers and the historian Robert Goodwin, interviewed on Rewriting America, looks at the colonisation of the Americas with more of a focus on Latin America. Turning to a slightly later era Professor AG Hopkins looks at American imperialism and the US’s acquisition of colonial possessions in the late 19th century.
David Cannadine delves into books on the British empire and how it ended. The novelist Adam Foulds explores the end of the British Empire with a particular focus on the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. War correspondent Sam Kiley considers the broader experience of colonial Africa and the journalists Jonny Steinberg and Alec Russell both consider some of the complex legacies of colonialism in South Africa.
This historian Julia Lovell looks at the legacy of British imperialism in China, with her books on the Opium War. And turning to the Chinese imperial experience, the writer James Palmer looks at minority survival in China and Robert Barnett, professor of Tibetan Studies at Columbia addresses the complex situation of Tibet. Judith Herrin discusses Byzantium, Eleanor Rosamund Barrraclough, the Vikings and Peter Adamson philosophy in the Islamic world.
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Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
by Aimé Césaire -
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A Dying Colonialism
by Frantz Fanon -
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I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem
by Maryse Condé -
4
Maps: A Novel
by Nuruddin Farah -
5
Can the Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea
ed. Rosalind Morris, original essay by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
The Best Postcolonial Literature, recommended by Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb
The Best Postcolonial Literature, recommended by Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb
Postcolonial literature brings together writings from formerly colonised territories, allowing commonalities across disparate cultures to be identified and examined. Here, the University of Toronto academic Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb recommends five key works that explore philosophical and political questions through allegory, personal reflection and powerful polemic.
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Imperial Intimacies: A Tale of Two Islands
by Hazel Carby -
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Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent
by Priyamavada Gopal -
3
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power
by Pekka Hämäläinen -
4
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century
by Charles King -
5
All Our Relations: Indigenous Trauma in the Shadow of Colonialism
by Tanya Talaga
The best books on Global Cultural Understanding: the 2020 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, recommended by Patrick Wright
The best books on Global Cultural Understanding: the 2020 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize, recommended by Patrick Wright
Every year the British Academy's Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize is awarded to the best nonfiction book that has contributed to 'global cultural understanding.' This year, the legacies of colonization and empire loom large. Patrick Wright, Emeritus Professor at King's College London and chair of this year's panel of judges, talks us through the books shortlisted for the £25,000 prize.
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The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property
by Rafe Blaufarb -
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Gold and Freedom: The Political Economy of Reconstruction
by Nicolas Barreyre -
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Citizenship between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960
by Frederick Cooper -
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Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India
by Nicholas B. Dirks -
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The Emergence of Globalism: Visions of World Order in Britain and the United States, 1939–1950
by Or Rosenboim
The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology, recommended by Thomas Piketty
The best books on Historical Change and Economic Ideology, recommended by Thomas Piketty
Throughout history, social and economic inequalities have been fueled and justified by different ideologies. French economist Thomas Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, looks at the advent and fall of these ideologies, and how they could evolve in the future. He recommends five great books to better understand these complex and always-evolving ideas, and their consequences for the world.
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Expansionists of 1898: The Acquisition of Hawaiʻi and the Spanish Islands
by Julius William Pratt -
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Denial of Empire: The United States and Its Dependencies
by Whitney T Perkins -
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The Tragedy of American Diplomacy
by William Appleman Williams -
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The New Empire: An Interpretation of American Expansion 1860-1898
by Walter LaFeber -
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Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos
by Louis A Pérez
The best books on American Imperialism, recommended by A G Hopkins
The best books on American Imperialism, recommended by A G Hopkins
When George W Bush declared that America “has never been an empire,” he elided a half century of colonial rule over its overseas dependencies. But American expansionism has manifested in other forms too, says A G Hopkins, imperial historian and author of a panoramic new work of American history.
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The Blind Owl
by Sadegh Hedayat and Naveed Noori (translator) -
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Season of Migration to the North
by Tayeb Salih -
3
Leg over Leg
by Ahmad Faris al-Shidyaq and Humphrey Davies (translator) -
4
Drifting Cities: A Trilogy
by Strates Tsirkas and Kay Cicellis (translator) -
5
The Arabian Nights or Tales of 1001 Nights
Mathias Enard on The ‘Orient’ and Orientalism
Mathias Enard on The ‘Orient’ and Orientalism
Study of the ‘Orient’ and Orientalism has evolved considerably since Edward Said's seminal study of 1978. Here, the multi-award winning French novelist Mathias Enard, whose own novel, Compass, draws on this rich history, discusses five books that capture key aspects of this ever-shifting terrain
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Greek Thought, Arabic Culture
by Dimitri Gutas -
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Great Medieval Thinkers: Avicenna
by Jon McGinnis -
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Avicenna's 'De Anima' in the Latin West
by Dag Nikolaus Hasse -
4
Maimonides in His World: Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker
by Sarah Stroumsa -
5
The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
by Ayman Shihadeh
The best books on Philosophy in the Islamic World, recommended by Peter Adamson
The best books on Philosophy in the Islamic World, recommended by Peter Adamson
Arabic philosophy was hugely influential during the Islamic Golden Age; at one point, the Persian polymath Avicenna’s influence outstripped that of Aristotle. But a strong tradition has continued in the centuries since, explains Professor Peter Adamson, as he selects five of the best books on the subject.
The best books on The Opium War, recommended by Julia Lovell
The 19th century opium war marked the clash of the world’s great empires of the age – Britain and China. Historian Julia Lovell says its legacy of Chinese humiliation is still felt keenly in Beijing.
The best books on The Vikings, recommended by Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough
The Vikings discovered America and traded slaves in Baghdad. They sometimes buried their dead in ships, but probably did not burn them. And they did not wear horned helmets. Historian Eleanor Barraclough separates myth from reality and recommends the best Viking books.
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The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
by James C Scott -
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The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China
by Mark C Elliott -
3
Wolf Totem
by Jiang Rong -
4
The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
by Rian Thum -
5
Forgotten Kingdom: Lijiang and the Naxi People
by Peter Goullart
The best books on Minority Survival in China, recommended by James Palmer
The best books on Minority Survival in China, recommended by James Palmer
China’s minority peoples have shaped the country’s history and its identity. They led its most successful dynasty, the Qing. But nowadays, their role has been reduced to that of tourist spectacle. Beijing-based writer James Palmer picks the best books on China’s ethnic minorities.
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Atlantic History
by Bernard Bailyn -
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Empires of the Atlantic World
by JH Elliott -
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Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
by David Eltis and David Richardson -
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The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800
by David Armitage and Michael J Braddick (editors) -
5
Soundings in Atlantic History
by Bernard Bailyn (editor)
The best books on Atlantic History, recommended by Bernard Bailyn
The best books on Atlantic History, recommended by Bernard Bailyn
Harvard professor and Pulitzer prize-winning historian Bernard Bailyn recommends reading on three centuries of empire, conflict and slave trading between the Americas, Europe and Africa
The best books on Tibet, recommended by Robert Barnett
Discussions about Tibet are often reduced to arguments about China’s right to run it. The Tibetologist says this obscures a much more subtle debate about what it means to be Tibetan in modern Tibetan society.
The best books on British Empire, recommended by David Cannadine
The history professor tells us why it’s less interesting to argue about whether the Empire was a force for good or ill, than to understand how it worked and why it fell apart. He suggests a reading list to get us started.
The best books on Native Americans and Colonisers, recommended by Colin Calloway
There’s a lot more to the story of colonists and Native Americans than the tale of the first Thanksgiving taught in school, says history professor Colin Calloway.
The best books on Identity in South Africa, recommended by Jonny Steinberg
The journalist and author discusses five books with strikingly different interpretations of what it means to be South African today, whether black or white
The best books on The Mau Mau Uprising and The Fading Empire, recommended by Adam Foulds
British novelist and poet Adam Foulds discusses fading empire in the context of Kenya, including the horrors of British gulags, the Mau Mau uprising, and the social deprivation endured by the Kikuyu.
The best books on The Death of Empires, recommended by James Meek
Journalist and author named Foreign Correspondent and Amnesty Journalist of The Year for 2004 chooses five books on the death of empires – and says that all empires are obsessed with the prospect of their own decline
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The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America
by Bartolomé de las Casas -
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Shipwrecks and Commentaries
by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca -
3
A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552)
by Bartolomé de las Casas -
4
Royal Commentaries of the Incas (1609)
by Garcilaso de la Vega, El Inca -
5
Red Earth, White Lies
by Vine Deloria Jr
The best books on Rewriting America, recommended by Robert Goodwin
The best books on Rewriting America, recommended by Robert Goodwin
Expert in Spanish Colonial History describes Christopher Columbus as a character from science fiction. Huge political irony that the first exploration of North America was led by a black man
The best books on Byzantium, recommended by Judith Herrin
Byzantine scholar Judith Herrin, professor emerita at King's College London, selects five books to help us understand the place of Byzantium in world civilisation.
The best books on Colonial Africa, recommended by Sam Kiley
‘Wherever you go today in the Congo, you will find monstrous warlords. But you will find far more volunteer nurses and Red Cross workers and teachers who haven’t been paid for 20 years but are still doing their job, not allowing things to fall apart.’
The best books on South Africa, recommended by Alec Russell
World News Editor at the FT and Pulitzer Prize nominee discusses the struggles and triumphs of South Africa – the colonial scramble, the end of apartheid, Mbeki, Mandela and rugby, ANC corruption and more