In fact, the Romans weren’t the only ones who colonized Britain – the Vikings, the Saxons and the Normans all had a go at it too. If, in the past, much of the thinking about empire was blinkered and jingoistic, these days it is often lacerating. I think it is an essential element in the essential effort to come to terms, finally, with Britain’s colonial past — and move on. Britain’s cotton industry grew into its largest and most valuable industrial sector by processing much of the raw material produced by America’s slaves. Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future by Tom Bullough is published by Granta .

Sathnam Sanghera - Wikipedia Sathnam Sanghera - Wikipedia

I particularly liked this quote: “You can form your own opinions about any books-whether they are written by Rudyard Kipling or anyone else (including this one). million square miles, and included India (sometimes also referred to as ‘the subcontinent’), many countries in Africa, Canada and Australia, and numerous Caribbean islands. Lots of conversations about the British Empire involve at least one person getting very upset or shouting, and another person getting very defensive.As Scanlan shows, it’s not a recent invention: it’s rooted in the vision of the antislavery movement itself.

Stolen History: The truth about the British Empire - WHSmith Stolen History: The truth about the British Empire - WHSmith

That’s what Britain has always done, sanitise the history, the violence, and I assumed if you wrote for kids there would be a lot of that. It will explore how Britain's empire once made it the most powerful nation on earth, and how it still affects our lives in many ways today - from the words we use, to the food we eat, the sports we play and even to every grown-up's fixation with a good cup of tea. Stolen History: The Truth About the British Empire and How It Shaped Us by Sathnam Sanghera is published by Puffin. An accessible, engaging and essential introduction to the British empire for readers aged 9+, by bestselling author of Empireland, Sathnam Sanghera. We know that there are no miracle recipes, but at least for me, trying to put some of these agreements into practice helped me transform things at an individual level.Considering the huge impact the British Empire had on the country we live in today, most people, children and adults alike, know relatively little about what it was, where it was and what its long-term effects have been on the world around us. For, it is only by stepping back and seeing where we really come from, that we can begin to understand who we are, and what unites us. Most importantly empire is largely responsible for making Britain the multicultural country it is today.

Stolen History by Sathnam Sanghera | Waterstones

In this witty and wide-ranging portrait of our nation, Wolverhampton-born journalist and novelist Sanghera looks with great acuity at how the Empire wrought contemporary Britain, from the attitudes of our politicians and our response to Covid-19, to the words we use daily without appreciating their colonial origin. I don’t doubt that books can change the world; it’s just that the ones that do tend not to change it for the better.Writing the book was a “long process” and 80% covers topics that didn’t feature in Empireland, says Sanghera.

Stolen History: The truth about the British Empire and how it

Empireland is a wide-ranging survey of Empire and its after-effects, where Sanghera examines his subject through a range of potent lenses. Given that the British Empire involved the enslavement of millions and the deaths of millions of others through famine, war and disease, it’s no surprise that tempers can rise when the topic arises. It is neither woke nor jingoistic; the sentiments are those of a fair-minded British citizen who comes from a Sikh family. It will leave young readers heartbroken and angry, but full of the fiery belief that something needs to change, and that together they can be part of creating that change. Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland is an absorbing, sober and witty reflection on the ways in which its imperial past has shaped so much of modern British life – its politics, education, culture and language, and, of course, its ethnic composition.If it’s like most schools, it probably has a number of classes of a similar size that are normally calm and well-behaved (OK, that part might not be true, but stick with me here! I wish it could change EU policy, change public opinion, change the ideological structures of western thought about migration. Yet it’s propelled by a similar, urgent frustration with the amnesiac myths of Britain’s supposedly glorious imperial heritage. Sanghera sets out his convincing arguments in a series of chapters examining how various aspects of empire have left an indelible effect on every aspect of British life and culture. British imperialism is identified as the source not only of militarism and hooliganism, but of the irresponsibility of high finance and much besides.