A review by kjcharles
The World's War by David Olusoga

A brilliant work. Olusoga has disinterred the deliberately erased stories of the literally millions of non-white, non-European troops who fought in WW1 on both sides, and the results are jawdropping. Both in the incredible untold/forgotten stories (the Indian VC winners and the Battle of Henry Johnson are astounding) but more in the incredible racial bigotry at play, as both sides weighed up the need for men with the equally urgent need to keep the myth of racial superiority alive in their empires. Which led to the British eg refusing offers of battalions, putting trained soldiers to work digging trenches, segregating and maltreating people who had often come at their own expense to volunteer for the Empire they were supposed to be part of, and them erasing them afterwards to the extent that black troops were literally not given graves, just a mass memorial, in direct contravention of the War Graves Commission's mission statement.

It's honestly sickening at points. The chapter on America exporting its vile race hate to Europe and the way black soldiers were treated during and after the war is beyond anything I'd expected, and I thought my expectations were low. It is really hard not to conclude that the rest of the world should have just sat back and watched Europe and white America kill each other. Especially since Olusoga demonstrates how the racial policies applied by Germany, Britain and America in the war led directly into the development of Nazi racial theory, internment camps, deliberate genocide, and apartheid.

Eye-opening and extremely necessary. Everyone should read this.