A great read.

I recommend this book. A concise history of many of the direct impacts on my life, seen through interesting streams of causes and effects played out due to decolonisation.

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Brilliant!

Loved this crash course in imperialism and economics. I can see why they don't teach this in school.

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Excellent

A very engaging book which very helpfully unfolded a comprehensive account of the legacies of the British empire that we all need to hear. I liked the insight into the authors own perspectives from his cultural heritage in Ghana. A brilliant account

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Brilliant

Incisive, enlightening and I hope will add one of many more much needed footnotes about British history.

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Desperately needed insight and perspective

A well structured and easy to follow work that nonetheless paints a detailed, highly informative picture of its subject. Hugely important for listeners to remember that to teach history and economics in this way in schools is becoming a matter of state prohibition in the UK and some parts of the USA.

Perhaps as an old Brython of low class, I can already sense a little that my white skin is no protection against the same fate that has befallen Africans and Asians at the hands of extractive corporate capitalism. History runs deep. This is the great beauty and importance of this work. Those of us who are white are conditioned to believe that somehow our whiteness gives us some divine protection against the evils of mass poverty. We believe it so sub consciously, we do not question it. Actually, the same machine that has caused such huge global inequality in the first place is again being turned against us, as it was previous bleaker ages, if only we remembered.

The hypocrisy of nativist-backed global finance and state-funded free markets is laid bare herein for the massive scam that it is against (nearly) all of us. Honestly one of the best books I’ve come across in years, and still there is so much more to say. Thanks, Dr. Karam.

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Uncommonwealth

liked the detailed history of key events abroad. Also how events in the past are influencing 21st century UK.

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Read this book, it's good.

I really enjoyed this, it is beautifully written and read by the author; it was for me a lot of disparate threads that I was more or less aware of, woven together in a (to me) novel and highly instructive way. I found I understood a lot of things differently by the end of the book, and I felt strongly how lacking my British education has been in so many areas.

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5 people found this helpful

A well presented history, and a well argued thesis

You may or may not agree with all the author's theories of cause and effect, but this is not (I believe) a polemical book. The author's reading is mildly ironic in tone- not angry or haranguing.

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Important, insightful, connection the dots

One of the most helpful books, written in an accessible way, for understanding Britain's changing relationship with, and understanding of, the history of the afterpath of Empire - connecting it to today's struggles in the UK, and ultimately calling for furthur recognition of this relationship and change, for the betterment of all workers, not just those in post-colonial countries. For me, one of the best books I've listened to this year.

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Exposing & Uprooting an Historic Tree.

The historic roots of British colonialism with its legally enforced financial system of harmful capital accumulation, foreign debt policy, and tax evasion runs incredibly deep into the earthen soil of many former colonies (and current British territories), while its multifarious branches stretch far and wide into the global present. The copious fruit of this giant colonial tree is still being enjoyed (exploited) to this very day at the expense of the foreign lands from which it grew and the many foreign labourers who unwillingly nurtured this tree with its own blood, sweat and tears (literally).


This book brilliantly traces the development of this rapacious tree and its contemporary entanglements (neocolonialism, neoliberalism) in many of today's foreign 'sovereign' states and sadly confirms the words of the late Kwame Nkrumah (the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana): “A state in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny." To tackle the fruit of this tree without recognising and dealing with its roots (as this book fully explains) is not only naïve but utterly nonsensical.

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