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ricky_mcmaster's review
5.0
Superbly done, my only quibble is that I'd prefer it to be longer.
Well narrated and produced with some fascinating interviews.
Well narrated and produced with some fascinating interviews.
christian_delve's review
5.0
Fantastic podcast by Afua Hirsch, a great follow up to her book Brit(ish).
iced_mochas's review
5.0
A broad, profound and moving exploration of the British Empire as an Audible Original podcast series. Ever since I listened to the six-episode series earlier in the year I’ve been recommending it to people. I learnt so much from Afua Hirsch and her guests – suffice to say, the British school curriculum did not do the job (nor even my undergraduate degree). Each episode takes a specific region and features a personal anecdote from a guest, plus background context from an academic. The Somalia and Sierra Leone episodes were particularly memorable. The latter unravels how Britain's slave trade intensified in some ways after abolition, so recent boastful rhetoric about our nobility for abolishing the slave trade in Britain are misplaced – and frankly false. I wish we could make this compulsory listening for Brits. This was my first Audible download and a very encouraging one.
andrewfontenelle's review
4.0
The British Empire and it's legacy as told by those that have been touched by it! Once controlling almost a quarter of the globe, it is often portrayed through 'rose-tinted glasses' with feelings of nostalgia. This short six-part documentary sweeps away these misconceptions and presents it as it was.
soafricane's review
5.0
This doc-podcast series broaches the vague nostalgia, impartiality and amnesia that endure as mainstream memory of British empire in stead of the harsh realities of physical and cultural dispossession, racial inferiority and seismic precarity that are etched onto the memories of the colonized.
Admirers & equivocators of empire listening to these first-person accounts are asked to critically acknowledge the horrendous impacts and legacies of British empire.
In short: support reparations!
Admirers & equivocators of empire listening to these first-person accounts are asked to critically acknowledge the horrendous impacts and legacies of British empire.
In short: support reparations!
enyanyo's review
5.0
Fantastic series of vignettes the show different lives affected by the empire. What was most fascinating for me was from Ep 4 with the parallels between the lives of colonial officers then and “expats” working in “developing countries” today.
komet2020's review
4.0
Several years ago, I had the pleasure of reading Lawrence James' magisterial book "[b:The Rise and Fall of the British Empire|143980|The Rise and Fall of the British Empire|Lawrence James|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354898847l/143980._SX50_.jpg|1098175]", which encapsulated for me the history of one of the world's great empires.
Afua Hirsch, a British journalist of Guyanese/Ghanaian descent, through her audiobook "We Need to Talk about the British Empire" presents the listener with 6 different perspectives from people whose families through the generations were either subjects of the Empire or had worked for the Empire. What these people had to say shows that the legacy of the British Empire is, in toto, a mixed bag. I was struck by the remarks made by singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss, who had been born in Hong Kong in the 1980s (when it was still a British colony) and moved with her family to Britain a few years before Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997. She presented to me a view of life in Hong Kong under British rule in her lifetime and in the lifetimes of her parents that didn't exactly fit the commonly held view of relationships between colonizer and subject peoples. It brought to mind my memories of democratic changes that were put into place in Hong Kong under its last Governor, Lord Chris Patten, in the waning years of his tenure.
I concede that there will be some people who were instilled with the triumphalist perspectives of the British Empire who will likely take issue -- if not umbrage --- with the views expressed in this audiobook by the 6 respondents. Yet, I think that the views expressed in this audiobook should be listened to and quietly considered.
History is about people. And the more we grow in understanding of what people - in various strata of society across time - have done in thought and action, the better we will understand how we have come to be what we are today.
Afua Hirsch, a British journalist of Guyanese/Ghanaian descent, through her audiobook "We Need to Talk about the British Empire" presents the listener with 6 different perspectives from people whose families through the generations were either subjects of the Empire or had worked for the Empire. What these people had to say shows that the legacy of the British Empire is, in toto, a mixed bag. I was struck by the remarks made by singer-songwriter Emma-Lee Moss, who had been born in Hong Kong in the 1980s (when it was still a British colony) and moved with her family to Britain a few years before Hong Kong was handed over to China in 1997. She presented to me a view of life in Hong Kong under British rule in her lifetime and in the lifetimes of her parents that didn't exactly fit the commonly held view of relationships between colonizer and subject peoples. It brought to mind my memories of democratic changes that were put into place in Hong Kong under its last Governor, Lord Chris Patten, in the waning years of his tenure.
I concede that there will be some people who were instilled with the triumphalist perspectives of the British Empire who will likely take issue -- if not umbrage --- with the views expressed in this audiobook by the 6 respondents. Yet, I think that the views expressed in this audiobook should be listened to and quietly considered.
History is about people. And the more we grow in understanding of what people - in various strata of society across time - have done in thought and action, the better we will understand how we have come to be what we are today.