Author:Tristram Hunt
From Tristram Hunt, award-winning author of The Frock-Coated Communist and leading UK politician, Ten Cities that Made an Empire presents a new approach to Britain's imperial past through the cities that epitomised it
Since the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and the end days of Empire, Britain's colonial past has been the subject of passionate debate. Tristram Hunt goes beyond the now familiar arguments about Empire being good or bad and adopts a fresh approach to Britain's empire and its legacy. Through an exceptional array of first-hand accounts and personal reflections, he portrays the great colonial and imperial cities of Boston, Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Bombay, Melbourne, New Delhi, and twentieth-century Liverpool: their architecture, culture, and society balls; the famines, uprisings and repressions which coursed through them; the primitive accumulation and ghostly bureaucracy which ran them; the British supremacists and multicultural trailblazers who inhabited them.
From the pioneers of early America to the builders of modern India, from west to east and back again, Hunt follows the processes of exchange and adaptation that collectively moulded the colonial experience and which in their turn transformed the culture, economy and identity of the British Isles. This vivid and richly detailed imperial story, located in ten of the most important cities which the Empire constructed, demolished, reconstructed and transformed, allows us a new understanding of the British Empire's influence upon the world and the world's influence upon it.
Praise for The Frock-Coated Communist:
'Beautifully written and consistently engaging' - Independent
'An excellent book ... Hunt has a mastery of 19th-century British culture and European political thought' - Robert Service, Sunday Times
'Thoughtful and engaging' - Telegraph Review
A grand history of the British empire ... this is a book about ideas, for all that it is rich in architectural description, economic fact and colourful anecdote ... well-written, cleverly constructed and beautifully balanced
—— James McConnachie , SpectatorA fascinating and readable book
—— Justin Huggler , IndependentIngenious and timely ... Hunt skilfully constructs his itinerary to provide a lively and cliché-busting survey of imperial history ... he uses the urban lens to terrific effect
—— Maya Jasanoff , GuardianAn original and inventive approach to tackling empire ... This is a book which is experienced through the life on the streets, in the buildings and across the physical layout of large urban centres, where jostled men and women of different races and creeds ... readable and engaging ... It is a work of great ambition ... impressive
—— Kwasi Kwarteng , StandpointA tantalising history... A panoramic survey of the witch craze that swept through Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
—— John Carey , Sunday TimesMoving and spirited.
—— Anne Somerset , Literary ReviewExcellent.
—— Thomas Quinn , Big IssueBorman provides a fascinating account of the circumstances surrounding the case.
—— Amanda Foreman , Mail on SundayThis is an entertaining piece of research that brings back to life three women who had the misfortune to live during a period that was terrified of the unknown and sought to tame that fear by turning it into a handful of dust.
—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , TelegraphAs a work on the horrific treatment of witches throughout history, in particular the 16th and 17th centuries, it is shocking and illuminating.
—— Caroline Jowett , Scottish Daily ExpressFascinating history of witchcraft in England… An immensely readable and never less than gripping account of a society in flux and the women who suffered to enable its stability.
—— Sara Keating , Sunday Business PostAbsorbing.
—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , Weekly TelegraphThis is history at its most disturbing, and yet also most interesting.
—— Steve Craggs , UK Regional PressTracy Borman tells this strange, compelling and ultimately inconclusive story.
—— Diane Purkiss , IndependentBorman’s enthusiasm and diligence keeps the history in place, while the central story, and the mysteries, lies and obfuscations that surround it, add a flavour of the detective novel.
—— Michael Noble , StarburstThe interest here lies in the accurate and plausible portrait of a whole society, from top to bottom… The details are fascinating
—— GuardianStangneth’s close readings prove richly illuminating
—— Lawrence Douglas , The Times Literary SupplementMs. Stangneth, acting more like an investigative journalist than an academic philosopher, does an excellent job in tracing the odyssey of these archival records, which are scattered across various continents . . . . With her well-written and impressively well-researched book, Ms. Stangneth not only adds many new, surprising details to our picture of Eichmann before the trial but also prepares the stage for follow-on research
—— Wall Street JournalExtraordinary . . . At each stage, the meticulous quality of [Stangneth’s] research and her distinctive moral outrage make the journey enthralling . . . Stangneth’s book has the flavor of a detective story . . . [A] fine, important book
—— The Daily BeastStangneth uses new documents to reconstruct the post-war lives of Nazis in exile, revealing an egotistical and skilled social manipulator.
—— Daily TelegraphHow [Stangneth] put all this complex information relative to Eichmann together in one book is astounding. Freshly sourced archives and statements are used throughout, building into a full depiction of Eichmann.
—— Reg Seward , NudgeIf your Nordic knowledge is limited to ABBA, snow and Vikings, read this book. Even if you are a seasoned traveller, or one of the "humbly proud" inhabitants, The Almost Nearly Perfect People will give you new perspectives and questions to mull over.
—— Anna Vesterinen , New Humanist
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