Certain historians and politicians like to claim that the British Empire was “on balance” a good thing. Slavery was evil, they admit, but abolition was good. Racism was wrong, but free markets are desirable.
In his new book Empireworld, journalist and historian Sathnam Sanghera rejects this “balance sheet” reading of history in order to wrestle with the contradictory legacies of imperialism. But does the obvious complexity of this history really make it impossible to make any moral claims about the empire overall?
Eleanor Penny finds out, asking Sathnam about our different interpretations of historical legacies, how Britain exported racism around the world, and the ecological impacts of empire, from national parks to quinine production.
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ACFM Trip 31: Strikes
TyskySour: Britain’s Energy Nightmare
TyskySour: Half A Million On Strike
TyskySour: Sunak’s NHS Pay Lies
Downstream: Science Isn’t Truth w/ Adam Rutherford
TyskySour: Hunt’s Economy Speech
TyskySour: Asylum Seeker Children Kidnapped
TyskySour: Zahawi On The Ropes
Downstream: The Sexual Marketplace w/ Annie Lord
TyskySour: Starmer At Davos
Novara FM: Havens in a Heartless World
TyskySour: Nurses On Strike
Downstream: Tories Don’t Think w/ Peter Hitchens
TyskySour: Anti-Strike Law Showdown
TyskySour: Doctors Tear Into The Tories For NHS Collapse
TyskySour: Ambulance Workers On Strike
TyskySour: Union Talks Break Down
TyskySour: Right To Strike Under Threat
TyskySour: Sunak’s Lame Duck Speech
Downstream: Novara’s 2022 Roundtable Review
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