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George Bush's 'War on Terror' has inspired a forest of books about the new American Empire. But what about Britain's role in the world? "A People's History of the British Empire" challenges the claim that the British Empire was a kinder, gentler empire and suggests that the description of 'Rogue State' is more fitting. How many people today know about Britain's deep involvement in the opium drug trade in China, or that Tony Blair's hero Gladstone devoted his maiden parliamentary speech to defending his family's slave plantation in Jamaica? John Newsinger has written a wonderful popular history of key episodes in British imperial history. He pays particular attention to the battles of the colonised to free themselves of its baleful rule, including Rebellion in Jamaica; The Irish Famine; The Opium Wars; The Great Indian Rebellion; The Conquest of Egypt; Palestine in Revolt; 'Quit India' and the struggle for Independence; Suez; Malaya; Kenya and Rhodesia; and, Britain and American Imperialism.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Introducing The Real British Empire,
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This review is from: The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire (Paperback)
John Newsingers "The Blood Never Dried" might be subtitled as a "Peoples History of the British Empire" but it is nothing of the sort. What the reader will instead find is a fine piece of writing that rather than providing a linear history of the Empire, examines a number of historical episodes that starkly illuminate what under girded the Empires existence: brutality and violence.
The selection is from what is known as the second British Empire, that which existed after the loss of the American colonies during the late eighteenth century. The episodes examined are (1) Jamaica and Slavery, (2) The Irish Famine, (3) The Opium Wars in China, (4) The 1857-58 Rebellion (Mutiny) in India, (5) The Invasion of Egypt in 1882, (6) The Imperial Crisis subsequent to WW1, (7) The Palestine Revolt of the late 1930's, (8) The campaign for Indian Independence, (9) The Suez War, (10) Kenya and the Mau-Mau Insurrection, (11) Malaya's "Emergency", and (12) Britains relationship with American Imperialism. Each chapter focussing on one of the subjects (as listed above) and also put the events described into a broader historical context, including many quotes from contemporary participants and observers. It also reminds the reader that what a vicious racist Churchill could be, not least in relation to Iraq (where he spoke up for gassing recalcitrant tribes) and India (where even his viceroy in India was appalled at his callous response to the Bengal Famine that cost millions of Indian lives). Those who have fond memories of Old Labour will be disturbed to discover that one area of continuity between New and Old is foreign policy. Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and even Clement Atlee were quite as capable of carrying out brutal imperial policies as their Conservative opponents. Each episode also includes some commentary on how orthodox histories, and biographies, have dealt with the history that Newsinger brings to the reader, giving them an idea of the paucity and partiality of much historical writing on this subject. The only source of irritation, albeit minor, was Newsingers pigeon-holing of every insurrection, uprising, rebellion, etc as "revolutionary". "The Blood Never Dried" is an excellent introduction to the reality of the British Empire. It is far from exhaustive, it could easily be three or four times the size, but one that is an ideal riposte to some of the recent boosters of Empire, from Niall Ferguson (soon to revamp the history curriculum) to Tony Blair, Andrew Roberts to Gordon Brown, and all too many more. Well recommended.
22 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The perfect antidote to Niall Ferguson's revisionist account,
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This review is from: The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire (Paperback)
A richly deserved counter-blast to Niall Ferguson's Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, which disgracefully glossed over the many crimes against humanity committed in the name of British imperial power. The fact that Newsinger's book received so little attention when it came out speaks volumes. For another study in the same vein that focuses on the 20th century up to the present, see Mark Curtis's Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World. You will see Britain and the world rather differently if you read these books.
26 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Useful outline history of the British Empire,
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This review is from: The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire (Paperback)
The author of this useful outline of the British Empire is a history lecturer at Bath Spa University College.
In the early 19th century, the Empire gained vast profits from slavery. 13 million people were kidnapped from Africa; two million died or were killed en route. The 1831 slave rebellion in Jamaica played a key role in overthrowing slavery in the British Caribbean. During the 19th century, the British state waged three `Opium wars' to force the drug on China. As American historian John K. Fairbanks wrote, Britain's opium trade was `the most long-continued and systematic crime of modern times'. India's 1857 rising for national liberation was `a national revolt' (Disraeli), `a national war' (Governor-General Lord Canning). The British government as usual accused the rebels of rape and torture (later British investigations proved these accusations to be lies), to incite its forces to commit appalling atrocities against the Indian people. Gladstone's Liberal government ordered British forces to invade Egypt and Sudan in 1882-84. They massacred tens of thousands of people at Alexandria, Tel-el-Kebir and Omdurman. After World War One, fought supposedly for the rights of small nations, some of the colonies, like Ireland, Egypt, India, Iraq and Palestine, decided to fight for their freedom. The Empire resisted, with its usual methods of barbarism. In Ireland, Churchill and Lloyd George enthusiastically backed the `Black and Tans' death squads. Of the Iraq war, T. E. Lawrence wrote in 1920, "Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows. It is a disgrace to our imperial record, and may soon be too inflamed for any ordinary cure. We today are not far from a disaster." General Rawlinson, the commander in chief in India, said in 1920, "You may say what you like about not holding India by the sword, but you have held it by the sword for 100 years and when you give up the sword you will be turned out. You must keep the sword ready to hand and in case of trouble or rebellion use it relentlessly. Montagu calls it terrorism, so it is and in dealing with natives of all classes you have to use terrorism whether you like it or not." After 1945, in the Far East, the Empire conducted brutal wars in Malaya, Indonesia (620 British and Indian troops were killed and 20,000 Indonesians), and Vietnam, where the army instructed officers, "Always use the maximum force available to ensure wiping out any hostiles we may meet. If one uses too much no harm is done." The British position in the Middle East collapsed, after defeats in Palestine, Iran, Egypt and Iraq. In Kenya in the 1950s, the Empire portrayed its pogrom against the Kikuyu people as a Kikuyu pogrom against the white settlers. The comparative death tolls reveal the truth: even official figures showed 11,500 Kikuyu killed, and 32 settlers. Newsinger argues that the British ruling class sees the American empire as the best guarantor of its global interests. He concludes that only `mass protest and mass resistance' can end `British capitalism's allegiance to the American Empire'. We will need to do a lot more than that!
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