A review by flyingfox02
Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

Eye-opening examination of the British Empire, its violent history and how it affects the present state of the country. Much of the book was completely new information to me, as we weren't taught about Imperial Britain at school and my own knowledge of it was severely limited. I'd never heard of, for example, the massacres in India (e.g. Jallianwala Bagh) by the British Army and the genocide in Tasmania. The book explains how the Empire's "violent and occasionally genocidal" nature gives roots to racism and xenophobia today. It also touches on how our longing to return to the "great" Britain of the past is the basis for the rhetorics of some politicians, and ultimately for Brexit. (I have another book in mind to read more about this particular point). Some chapters were a bit tougher to digest (anything economics is abstract to me) but overall well-researched and enlightening.

Homer Todiwala narrates the audiobook, was great and not monotonic at all.