A History of Empire in Modern Britain

Imperial Island

Imperial Island shows how empire and its ever-present aftermath have divided and defined Britain over the last seventy years. 
 
'An eye-opening study of the empire within' SHASHI THAROOR 
'Clear, bold, refreshing' LUCY WORSLEY 
 
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. 
 
'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

Riley’s absorbing new book … [is] a history of modern multicultural Britain and the myriad ways in which it has been shaped by empire and imperialism … Riley’s skills as a social historian are demonstrated to best effect in her use of personal testimonies, oral histories and popular culture sources to bring to life the everyday experiences of new migrants … The book is particularly rich on civil society campaigns against racism, and at documenting the political role played by the anti-war left in modern Britain … dexterously handled and carefully sourced

Imperial Island is a marvellous account of how the empire made modern Britain. With an eye that ranges from popular culture to the highbrow, from high politics to the household, Charlotte Riley's book is a thought-provoking delight that absolutely everyone should read

STEPHEN BUSH, columnist for the Financial Times

Charlotte Lydia Riley radically retells a stale old story in her clear, bold, refreshing voice. Skilfully, inexorably and powerfully, she builds up a picture that's been hiding in plain sight for far too long

LUCY WORSLEY, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces and author of Agatha Christie

Incisive, important, and incredibly timely. An urgent and necessary account for anyone wanting to understand how Britain became the nation it is today

CAROLINE ELKINS, author of Legacy of Violence

Riley’s book … examin[es], with considerable skill, Britain’s postwar retreat from empire … [and] recounts, with particular sympathy, the experiences faced by immigrants from the former empire

At a time when discussion of the subject [of empire] can quickly devolve into ill-informed polemic, this offers an extensively researched, thought-provoking alternative

An immaculately detailed and impeccably researched account of what shaped Britain as we know it, following the collapse of empire. This is an urgent book and fine example of why the past, and knowledge of the past, is so important in the present

Riley shows that attitudes to empire in Britain were always complex and contested … provides some important corrections … [and] charts how, in the wake of decolonisation, imperialism continued to shape life in Britain … if the history of empire in Britain that Imperial Island tells is a very modern one, Riley shows, too, that our “history wars” have a long history of their own

A masterful, ingeniously written telling of Britain's real history, stripped of its sugarcoating. Read this incisive and forensic book, and you won't look at Britain in the same way ever again

A withering indictment of cruel Britannia … a chilling history of institutional and public prejudice … Riley gives injustices that ought to be better known their due

Imperial Island shows us that Empire's legacy is soaked into Britain's landscapes and built into its cities and inescapably in the country's national DNA. An eye-opening study of the Empire within

SHASHI THAROOR, author of Inglorious Empire

Riley's prose flows smoothly, connecting the dots to give the reader the wider picture. For anyone curious about Britain's colonial legacy in the modern era, Imperial Island will certainly be an eye-opener

The familiar national story . . . is retold with the legacies of colonialism and racism front and centre. Other scholars have pioneered this approach . . . However, few have pursued the theme with as much gusto as Riley

Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian of twentieth-century Britain at the University of Southampton, specialising in questions about empire, politics, culture and identity. Her writing has appeared in a wide range of publications including the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Times, Washington Post and History Today. She tweets @lottelydia.

Imperial Island shows how empire, its disintegration and its ever-present aftermath have profoundly shaped the British people, their culture, society and politics, throughout the last seventy years. 
 
Drawing on a mass of new research, from personal letters to pop culture, it tells a story of immigration and fractured identity, of social strife and communal solidarity, of people on the move and of a people wrestling with their past. 
 
It is the story that best explains Britain today.

Charlotte Lydia Riley

Suzanne Nossel

Intelligence Squared

Two leading thinkers present alternative answers to one of the most difficult and divisive questions of our times: Is free speech under threat? 
 
Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, the leading free expression organisation, argues that alongside the necessary and long-overdue elevation of minority voices in recent years, there has also arisen an uncompromising intolerance – most notably on university campuses and online – that wrongly equates a wide range of offensive speech with violence and seeks to shut it down. This has led to an escalating free speech arms race, from which everyone loses. 
 
Charlotte Lydia Riley, historian of empire and editor of The Free Speech Wars, argues that accusations of cancel culture and defences of free speech are too often disingenuous attempts to fuel a culture war and so inhibit an important realignment in which hateful speech is at last being called out for what it is and the right to free expression is being extended to more people than ever before. 
 
Published in conjunction with Intelligence Squared, the world’s leading curator of debate, this book is part of the THINK AGAIN series: short books that present two expert, contrasting but equally persuasive views in a single volume that can be read from either end.

Charlotte Lydia Riley

Books by Charlotte Lydia Riley

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