Imperial Island by Charlotte Lydia Riley sets out to be ‘a history of empire in modern Britain’, as its subtitle tells us. It follows the history of Britain from 1939 to the present day and tries to show how the British Empire is still at the core of what makes Britain tick.
This is a book which describes the last decades of the British Empire. From the moment when it was at its largest – the 1930s – to its rapid decline and dismemberment in the aftermath of the Second World War.
In telling this story Riley describes the major events of the recent British past. The Second World War is critical in that it illustrates the dependency Britain had on the assistance of the Empire in its fight against Nazism and the valuable contribution the countries of the Empire made in in that fight.
Following the Second World War the decades are marked by the decline and fall of the Empire. The book takes us through significant events of post-war British history including the Suez Crisis, the Mau Mau rebellion, the Malayan Emergency, South Africa and apartheid, Rhodesia, and The Falklands.
Riley continues the history with the British involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq as a (albeit junior) ally of the USA.
Throughout all this Riley is concerned to show how the ingrained racism of the British Empire repeatedly showed itself in its response to the fight against colonialism and how this racism continues in modern Britain.
Following the decline of the Empire there was the rise of the racist right and Riley describes in detail the impact of Enoch Powell and his ‘rivers of blood’ speech and how this invigorated and strengthened the National Front and other right-wing groups. She is keen to show how the politics of Nigel Farage is a product of the racism of empire.
In an article in The Guardian (23 August 2023), Pratinav Anil makes the argument that Imperial Islands has the story the wrong way round. He says that it was not empire, but nationalism which created the worst element of the ‘white Britishness’. He claims that empires ‘set great store by multiculturalism’ and it was with the decline of empire that nationalism raised its ugly head and racism became more prevalent.
This is a very rose-tinted view of empire, and he only supports this argument by saying that before 1929 there were ‘a dozen black and brown MPs in the Commons’ and then none until after 1987. This tells us very little, and it certainly doesn’t tell us that the British Empire was multicultural!
Charlotte Riley tells a more coherent story. One in which the racism of empire has led to racist policies and racist politicians in its aftermath. Where Riley and Anil do seem to agree is that the rise of racism and nationalism was a product of the Empire coming home to roost.
People from various corners of the Empire, given that they had the right to be British subjects had formed communities and integrated in many British cities. Following the Second World War the number increased. Windrush was one boat, but it represents a fleet of others containing people from around the world who sought to exercise their rights as British citizens and make Britain home, or at least a temporary resting place. They were there to make a life for themselves as well as to help in the post-war reconstruction.
However, Riley explains, the racism had always been there and when social problems emerged it was almost natural that the far right would lay the blame on the immigrant. What makes this a tragedy of the 2020s is that the racism of Enoch Powell and the far right became absorbed in the political views of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party followed. The politics of Thatcher are never far from the centre of this story and Riley makes great play of the role in the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, which helped cement Thatcher and the Conservatives as the leaders of a right-wing movement which continued under Blair and continues even more radically to this day.
Imperial Islands tells a story of empire which has affected and is affecting national politics. It is a story of how racism was developed by empire and still affects day to day views. It tells many fascinating historical stories in an engaging and convincing manner.
Where Imperial Islands fails is in explaining the inherent nature of racism and how it exists in societies who have never had empires. It places the blame solely on the existence of Empire. It might have benefitted from a reading of William Dalrymple’s 2002 book White Mughals. In this the nature of racism can be seen to be laid squarely at the door of religion.
