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readthesparrow's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Hakim Adi has done a wonderful job of compiling texts about Britain by black people. As an American whose education has largely focused on race in America, seeing writing about race in Britain and the way it changed over the years and the different ways it was written about was extremely interesting. The excerpts from "Hard Truth" by Theodore Thomas, the letter to the editor by Sarah Parker Remond, "Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands" by Mary Seacole, and "The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave" by Mary Prince were among the most engaging and interesting texts for me in the collection.
My main criticism of the text is not necessarily one for this collection in particular but rather of the series it is a part of, the Macmillan Collector’s Library. This is the second of the collection I have read, leading me to notice two things: one, the author biographies are limited to one page, and two, there are scarce to zero footnotes. While this format works better for collections of fiction, when it comes to non-fiction the scarcity of context and guidance provided makes an impact on the reading experience.
The bios especially I would have liked to be longer. What we get is well-written and does provide a good basis for reading the following text; however, it is limited to one page, meaning that the writer's biography is limited in scope. While I didn't mind this for the author biographies in the previous Macmillan Collector’s Library collection I read ("Classic Science Fiction Stories"), I would have appreciated more detail and context for the material covered in "Black Voices on Britain" as much of it was non-fiction discussing a time period, place, and people I was unfamiliar with.
While some things I would have liked more context on were easy to look up (such as the Gordon Riots discussed in Ignatius Sancho's letters), other things were more difficult to look up (for example, why there were long dashes in those letters to replace names, what those marked out names are believed to indicate [ex. who lord G---- G---- is], and if the *** marks were used to indicate damage or something else). The latter things are aspects people familiar with the source text or writing conventions of the time might know offhand, while those unfamiliar with the text/historical context would not know offhand and may have difficulty looking up.
Overall, while Adi made excellent choice of texts for this collection, I think that the format restrictions resulting in lack of context in places makes this not the best choice of text for someone who is unfamiliar with British history in the covered era should they want to learn more about black British history. However, a reader already studying or familiar with the historical context may get far more out of this collection, and is more likely to be the target audience for this text anyhow.
My main criticism of the text is not necessarily one for this collection in particular but rather of the series it is a part of, the Macmillan Collector’s Library. This is the second of the collection I have read, leading me to notice two things: one, the author biographies are limited to one page, and two, there are scarce to zero footnotes. While this format works better for collections of fiction, when it comes to non-fiction the scarcity of context and guidance provided makes an impact on the reading experience.
The bios especially I would have liked to be longer. What we get is well-written and does provide a good basis for reading the following text; however, it is limited to one page, meaning that the writer's biography is limited in scope. While I didn't mind this for the author biographies in the previous Macmillan Collector’s Library collection I read ("Classic Science Fiction Stories"), I would have appreciated more detail and context for the material covered in "Black Voices on Britain" as much of it was non-fiction discussing a time period, place, and people I was unfamiliar with.
While some things I would have liked more context on were easy to look up (such as the Gordon Riots discussed in Ignatius Sancho's letters), other things were more difficult to look up (for example, why there were long dashes in those letters to replace names, what those marked out names are believed to indicate [ex. who lord G---- G---- is], and if the *** marks were used to indicate damage or something else). The latter things are aspects people familiar with the source text or writing conventions of the time might know offhand, while those unfamiliar with the text/historical context would not know offhand and may have difficulty looking up.
Overall, while Adi made excellent choice of texts for this collection, I think that the format restrictions resulting in lack of context in places makes this not the best choice of text for someone who is unfamiliar with British history in the covered era should they want to learn more about black British history. However, a reader already studying or familiar with the historical context may get far more out of this collection, and is more likely to be the target audience for this text anyhow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Classism, Colonisation, Trafficking, and Slavery
Moderate: Violence, Religious bigotry, and Racial slurs
Minor: Gaslighting
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