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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
This took me a month to read but once I got past the worst introduction in human history, the rest of the book was magnificently written, though a bit dense in certain parts. Great historical survey of colonial movements/insurgencies and their impacts on both Black/Brown radical intellectuals and members of the white British metropole. Gopal draws excellently on a wide range of written and published works, without reiterating or rehashing similar theoretical points. She really does a great job of reframing the dialectical relationship between colony and metropole in terms of communist/socialist resistance in the homeland and abroad. Only reason I'm giving it 4 stars is that I felt the chapter organization could have been a bit better and because she needs to stop making paragraphs an entire page!
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A very important book that sprung a number of important ideas into my head and a book that has significantly reshaped some of my understanding of Empire and Anticolonial resistance. For much of what this book reveals, I can't fault it.
However, it's execution is hard work. There are moments where the book is gripping as well as illuminating but there are more moments where the book is clinical and dense. At points, this inevitably lessened the books impact.
Overall, I'm still appreciative of what I got out of the book but it's probably better suited for someone who is not simply a lay reader on the topic of Anticolonialism. Which is a shame because its lessons should hit a wider audience.
However, it's execution is hard work. There are moments where the book is gripping as well as illuminating but there are more moments where the book is clinical and dense. At points, this inevitably lessened the books impact.
Overall, I'm still appreciative of what I got out of the book but it's probably better suited for someone who is not simply a lay reader on the topic of Anticolonialism. Which is a shame because its lessons should hit a wider audience.
a resounding reversal! great insights, great info in here. read a little self-indulgently as a crash course (well, perhaps a little bit longer than that) in avenues for solidarity and allyship with radical movements against empire
If you could turn Priyamvada Gopal’s excellent ‘Insurgent Empire’ into a pill, it would serve as a very strong antidote to liberal-saviour narratives that we are consistently ‘treated’ to by apologists for the British empire.
Largely concentrating the early sections of the book on key moments of insurgency or insurrection within the wider British imagination in the mid to late 1800s, we come to understand through Gopal’s work that these were not unique, but rather sit on a longer continuum of anticolonial resistance.
Although the work of other scholars makes the point well about moments like the 1857 Indian Uprising not being unique prior to their action, what is incredible about this book, is the way in which Gopal charts how intellectual movements within India, the Caribbean and Egypt, were educating those in the West in what Gopal terms an “act of reverse tutelage”. This is not a story of how western thinkers became enlightened by virtue of their own beneficence, but rather how both individuals and movements were intellectually enriched by anticolonial insurgent movements to become critics of Empire. If there was no other reason to appreciate the existence of this work, this would be enough. As Gopal writes:
“My own argument here turns away from the hypostatizing pieties of personal national conscience towards an examination of rebel agency as a catalyst for serious criticism of the imperial project.”
I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book that so fundamentally shifted some of my own assumptions about the way in which some in Britain (England) interacted and indeed counteracted empire with its colonial subjects. There is so much to learn, not just to correct historical record, but to understand the roles we play in the world we inhabit today. Gopal leaves us with no thought except that reassessing this whole history is utterly necessary for debates that are currently ranging around what it means to be citizens/subjects of the state today.
Largely concentrating the early sections of the book on key moments of insurgency or insurrection within the wider British imagination in the mid to late 1800s, we come to understand through Gopal’s work that these were not unique, but rather sit on a longer continuum of anticolonial resistance.
Although the work of other scholars makes the point well about moments like the 1857 Indian Uprising not being unique prior to their action, what is incredible about this book, is the way in which Gopal charts how intellectual movements within India, the Caribbean and Egypt, were educating those in the West in what Gopal terms an “act of reverse tutelage”. This is not a story of how western thinkers became enlightened by virtue of their own beneficence, but rather how both individuals and movements were intellectually enriched by anticolonial insurgent movements to become critics of Empire. If there was no other reason to appreciate the existence of this work, this would be enough. As Gopal writes:
“My own argument here turns away from the hypostatizing pieties of personal national conscience towards an examination of rebel agency as a catalyst for serious criticism of the imperial project.”
I honestly can’t remember the last time I read a book that so fundamentally shifted some of my own assumptions about the way in which some in Britain (England) interacted and indeed counteracted empire with its colonial subjects. There is so much to learn, not just to correct historical record, but to understand the roles we play in the world we inhabit today. Gopal leaves us with no thought except that reassessing this whole history is utterly necessary for debates that are currently ranging around what it means to be citizens/subjects of the state today.
Extremely informative and important but I did struggle with the sheer amount of info
Academically dense writing.
But oh what a subject.
As a citizen of the country that probably enslaved more and stole more than any other at the time of empire this reading filled me with remorse and horror.
Insightful and ultimately (hopefully) extremely useful in making sure I know more about why I need to weigh in a little on the other side of the scales.
But oh what a subject.
As a citizen of the country that probably enslaved more and stole more than any other at the time of empire this reading filled me with remorse and horror.
Insightful and ultimately (hopefully) extremely useful in making sure I know more about why I need to weigh in a little on the other side of the scales.
Incredibly interesting! With some truly inspiring quotes, images and people.
challenging
informative
slow-paced