Imperial Island cover art

Imperial Island

A History of Empire in Modern Britain

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Imperial Island

By: Charlotte Lydia Riley
Narrated by: Charlotte Lydia Riley
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Imperial Island
shows how empire and its ever-present aftermath have divided and defined Britain over the last seventy years.

After the Second World War, Britain's overseas empire disintegrated. But the effects of empire lived on, shaping its population and politics and dominating its relationship with the world ever since. Drawing on a mass of new research, from personal letters to pop culture, Imperial Island tells this dramatic story of imperial demise and its potent legacy, from the Suez Crisis to the Falklands War, from the invasion of Iraq to Brexit. It is a story of immigration and social unrest, multiculturalism and extremism, and a nation continuously wrestling with its past.

'An eye-opening study of the empire within' SHASHI THAROOR

'Clear, bold, refreshing' LUCY WORSLEY'Incisive, important and incredibly timely . . . for anyone wanting to understand how Britain became the nation it is today ' CAROLINE ELKINS

'Marvellous . . . A thought-provoking delight that absolutely everyone should read' STEPHEN BUSH

'Absorbing . . . dexterously handled and carefully sourced’ Financial Times

‘Masterful, ingeniously written. You won't look at Britain in the same way ever again’ OWEN JONES

©2023 Charlotte Lydia Riley (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Colonialism & Post-Colonialism Europe Great Britain Politics & Government Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences Discrimination Imperialism Social justice Middle East England United Kingdom Africa Colonial Period War Socialism Middle Ages Human Rights Latin American Capitalism Iran

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Most relevant
This book goes a long way to explaining why we are this way today in terms of a nation wide intentional, by successive governments, ignorance of the empire. If we are to be proud of Britain’s empire then we should know the full story, the good, the bad and the mostly whitewashed.

A must for all Britons

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