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Product Description
Paul Gilroy's After Empire - in many ways a sequel to his classic study of race and nation, There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack - explores Britain's failure to come to terms with the loss of its empire and pre-eminent global standing.
Drawing on texts from the writings of Fanon and Orwell to Ali G. and The Office, After Empire shows that what we make of the country's postcolonial opportunity will influence the future of Europe and the viability of race as a political category.
Taking the political language of the post 9/11 world as a new point of departure he defends beleaguered multiculturalism against accusations of failure. He then takes the liberal discourse of human rights to task, finding it wanting in terms of both racism and imperialism. Gilroy examines how this imperial dissolution has resulted not only in hostility directed at blacks, immigrants and strangers, but also in the country's inability to value the ordinary, unruly multi-culturalism that has evolved organically and unnoticed in its urban centres.
A must-read for students of cultural studies, and Britain in the post 9/11 era.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Authors known for one outstanding book are often faced with pressures to continue writing in the same vein, and fall victim to the expectation of more of the same. Very often they end up continuing on the same theme, only for later works to be slated or ignored for a perceived lack of originality. Gilroy has largely been a victim of this pattern, as he continues to defend basically the same problematic he advanced in his best-known, pathbreaking work. This does not mean, however, that his later works are not worth reading. In this text, Gilroy traces issues of race and racism in British life through a variety of everyday phenomena, from analyses of Ali G and "The Office" to the role of World War II in British collective memory and the construction of national identity among football supporters. As a commentary on current events and a source of vital insights into the continuing relevance of the concerns Gilroy has addressed throughout his career, the book is a crucial reminder and a source of food for thought.
One problem with the book is that it flows badly, basically reading as a collection of short reflections, mostly reading like extended editorials, on aspects of racism and national identity in Britain, interspersed with overly brief inquiries into various theoretical issues. It doesn't advance a new problematic in the way something like Bhabha's "Location of Culture" or Said's "Orientalism", or for that matter Gilroy's earlier "Aint No Black in the Union Jack" do. The arguments made read as journalistic and speculative, challenging the reader to think without really providing support sufficient to convince a sceptic. The main theoretical stakes - Gilroy's choice of a "planetary humanism" against "multiculturalisms" and his stress on everyday "conviviality" as an antidote to racism - are insufficiently developed and fail to engage with possible criticisms, making the book too easy for others to dismiss.
This is therefore a good book, but not outstanding - worth reading for its insights, but unlikely to shake allegiances or change perspectives.
One problem with the book is that it flows badly, basically reading as a collection of short reflections, mostly reading like extended editorials, on aspects of racism and national identity in Britain, interspersed with overly brief inquiries into various theoretical issues. It doesn't advance a new problematic in the way something like Bhabha's "Location of Culture" or Said's "Orientalism", or for that matter Gilroy's earlier "Aint No Black in the Union Jack" do. The arguments made read as journalistic and speculative, challenging the reader to think without really providing support sufficient to convince a sceptic. The main theoretical stakes - Gilroy's choice of a "planetary humanism" against "multiculturalisms" and his stress on everyday "conviviality" as an antidote to racism - are insufficiently developed and fail to engage with possible criticisms, making the book too easy for others to dismiss.
This is therefore a good book, but not outstanding - worth reading for its insights, but unlikely to shake allegiances or change perspectives.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
very insightful and accesible
11 Aug 2006
Format:Paperback
This is my favorite Gilroy work to date. While some of his other books can be a bit challenging to read, I found this book to be quite accesible. Overall, he offers a critique of liberal humanism and finds room to be optimistic about the future of multiculturalism given its expression in aspects of youth convivial culture. His chapters on Ali G. and the Office made for entertaining and thought provoking reading. His analysis is spot on, timely, and vital for this post-9/11 world of extreme racial and cultural discord.
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