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A review by sparkin
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala
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.
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.