Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

A major new history of Britain that transforms our understanding of this country’s past

‘I’ve waited so long so read a comprehensively researched book about Black history on this island. This is it: a journey of discovery and a truly exciting and important work’ Zainab Abbas

Despite the best efforts of researchers and campaigners, there remains today a steadfast tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush, and continues mostly apart from a distinct British history, overlapping only on occasion amid grotesque injustice or pioneering protest.

Yet, as acclaimed historian Hakim Adi demonstrates, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isle, there have been African and Caribbean men and women set at Britain’s heart. Libyan legionaries patrolled Hadrian’s Wall while Rome’s first ‘African Emperor’ died in York. In Elizabethan England, ‘Black Tudors’ served in the land’s most eminent households while intrepid African explorers helped Sir Francis Drake to circumnavigate the globe. And, as Britain became a major colonial and commercial power, it was African and Caribbean people who led the radical struggle for freedom – a struggle which raged throughout the twentieth century and continues today in Black Lives Matter campaigns.

Charting a course through British history with an unobscured view of the actions of African and Caribbean people, Adi reveals how much our greatest collective achievements – universal suffrage, our victory over fascism, the forging of the NHS – owe to these men and women, and how, in understanding our history in these terms, we are more able to fully understand our present moment.

Publisher Review

A comprehensive history of African and Caribbean people in Britain and the vital role they played in the struggle for equality. An epic narrative and a timely book -- Wolfson History Prize judges A masterstroke ... A new picture of Britain through the centuries, a multi-ethnic scene that has never been depicted in quite so much detail. Highly recommended for those interested in the truth of our national story -- Paterson Joseph I've waited so long to read a comprehensively researched book about Black history on this island. This is it: a journey of discovery and a truly exciting and important work -- Zainab Abbas A meticulously researched tour de force that charts black presence on the British Isles from Cheddar Man through the African Roman legions and Black Tudors and into the present day -- Kehinde Andrews * Guardian * A comprehensive social and political history ... offers a crucial overview of the steady struggle of African and Caribbean people in Britain to assert their rights and resist oppression -- Gretchen Gerzina * TLS * From the Roman era to today, Hakim Adi has produced the most comprehensive history of African and Caribbean people since Peter Fryer's Staying Power. His telling of British history characterises the diverse, multi-centred chronology of African and Caribbean landmarks, crises, progress, organisations, communities and, most importantly, individual experiences in Britain * History Matters * 'They came with the Windrush' - well, no, they didn't: Africans have lived here for the past two thousand years. Hakim Adi summarises this history, their accomplishments, their struggles and the issues they now confront. A superb introduction to this long, often hidden, history. Black Lives do Matter -- Marika Sherwood An essential work that, in exploring national values, inter-cultural alliances and the politics of racialised identity, shines a light on the acts of the remarkable people across time who epitomised a universal struggle for the rights of all -- Toyin Agbetu The most comprehensive and accessible guidebook on what has come to be known as 'Black British history'. Suited for all readers, it provides a useful insight into how this history has developed, and the struggles to push for its expansion. It also inspires us to consider how we might contribute to the ever-growing understanding of this historical field -- Young Historians Project