In
recent years, the question of what impact the British empire had on modern
Britain has animated scholarly and public debate. While scholars were once sceptical
about whether empire influenced British society at all, in the past two decades
historians have shown how the formal independence of
colonies led to the reimagining of Britain’s role in the world as well as a
reckoning with the nation’s imperial identity. In the time since scholar Bill Schwarz first
called for research into the domestic implications of decolonisation,
historians have looked at - among other subjects - how the Commonwealth
functioned as a vehicle for renewed international ambitions, how empire was
remembered by white working-class communities, and how Black British activists
have taken inspiration from global anti-colonial movements. More recently, in
the last few years, the question of Britain’s entanglement with empire has
become a source of lively public debate with the publication of Akala’s Natives, Afua Hirsch’s Brit(ish), Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland, David Olusoga’s Black and British and Hannah Rose Wood’s
Rule Nostalgia. While here has been a
strong public backlash to accounts which have made the case for empire’s
continuing hold over British life, a counter-response has emerged in the form
of practical moves to decolonise university and school curriculums and re-evaluate
the role of museums. The intersection between public and historiographical
debate will form a focus of the course discussions.
This
seminar will look at Britain from c. 1945 to the present day, starting with how
the political independence of colonies led to institutional change within
Britain. As white European migrants returned from colonies and institutions
like British universities no longer serviced empire in the same way, the public
sector shifted focus to accommodate the return of people, goods and capital.
From here, we will move to look at how the British state moved to stem the flow
of migration from the New Commonwealth through increasingly restrictive immigration
policies at the same time as they pursued policies which encouraged white
emigration from Britain. Building on the earlier discussions on institutions,
we will return to examine how Britain formally rearticulated its political role
in the world through the Commonwealth and later its turn to Europe, before
later going on to look at how non-state bodies like charities and corporations
developed a language of humanitarianism that saw many Britons go on to
volunteer or donate money to the former empire. As well as looking at the role
of impersonal bodies like the state and NGOs, the course will devote a strong
focus to the role of individuals and communities. We will look at the growing body
of literature on Black Britain highlighting how Black Britons articulated their
position as citizens while drawing on a language of race and anti-colonialism
that disrupts conventional periodisation and geographies We will then look at
whiteness and memorialisation of empire as we seek to move away from and
complicate the simplified accounts of post-imperial nostalgia and post-imperial
amnesia which have been used to explain the lead up to Brexit.