Reviews

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala

wunkymatts's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

A brilliant explanation of how class and race intersect and a very nuanced understanding of how they relate to each other. Consistently well argued and accessible written. My only slight criticism is that some of the ideas he introduced could have been gone into in more depth, for example the nature of crime and who gets to decide what is criminal, but I understand that it was probably just space constraints that led to that. 

ceeceellama's review against another edition

5.0

Akala's writing is always eloquent, but the reflective nature of this book really touches the reader

efharker's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

4.5

sophtanda's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

1000unreadpages's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

oftalone90's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

A interesting discussion on race in Britain post-empire. Lots of interesting research and personal stories. I enjoyed that it was read by the author. 

abenteuerlichesoul's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

lambfield892's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars, rounded down. Really good brief discussion of various topic regarding race and class in British society. The perspective of women including women of colour is completely missing and whilst Amal’s is a man, it would have been appreciated it he added some notes regarding women and black women specifically. very accessible read, really good for beginners but did need some more citations. Akala would drop in little tidbits of really interesting info and then not cite it or really expand on it. The sources he has are great and are super interesting and i will definitely check them out, but this needed to be cited better. would recommend

sparkin's review against another edition

5.0

Akala's writing is so compelling this is often hard to put down, but I really benefited from making myself stop after every chapter to really digest this. Using personal experiences as a jumping-off point to explore race and class from local, national and global viewpoints, he wears his learning lightly - a really broad range of research brings global and historical context to his individual life experiences. It was personally challenging to me in terms of how I understand class and my own background and I'll probably be pushing it on my friends for a while.

It focuses on the experiences of people migrating to the UK after World War 2 and their descendants. There was already a history of Black people living in the British Isles going back to the Romans, and I think incorporating those histories (or even just Black migration into Britain at the height of 19th century imperialism) would have made this even richer. But that's out of scope for this book which is tied so closely to Akala's own biography, and you wouldn't want to lose that focus either.

It's an "Important" book in many ways but doesn't read like it's trying to be "worthy" - hopefully that will mean it keeps finding new readers and having the same impact on them as it did on me.

theogb451's review against another edition

5.0

Just a fantastic book on race and class in the modern UK. Possibly preaching to the converted for most of it in my case but there were still new things to learn. Chiefly what makes this a great book is that despite all heavy nature of the topics Akala seems to be a man full of hope for humanity and that seeps through every chapter, thus this isn't a book that drags you down as I certainly was braced for. It's enlightening and excellent.