In December 2019, as Paris was brought to a standstill by a massive public sector strike, I was happily foraging away in the backroom of the Centre for the Study and Research of International Revolutionary and Trotskyist Movements (CERMTRI). The volunteer archivist, who had ducked off from the picket line […]
Tag: imperialism
When the Statues Went Up
The last fortnight has seen many statues associated with racism and colonialism torn down. When were they originally put up, and what can that tell about the history of whiteness and empire? Peter Hill explores.
Debating “Discoveries”: Colonialism & Public History in Portugal
With debates over the public history of empire and colonialism intensifying across Europe, Afonso Dias Ramos explores the controversy in Portugal over the use of the term “Discoveries” to encompass the country’s complex colonial past.
Misnaming the Medieval: Rejecting “Anglo-Saxon” Studies
‘Anglo-Saxons’ has long been associated with the early English people, but this label suffers from a long history of misuse. Mary Rambaran-Olm explores the racist legacy of this term.
Jeremy Corbyn, “Imperialism”, and Labour’s Antisemitism Problem
What are the historical roots of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party? David Feldman explores.
Radical Object: A Nice Cup of Tea? Everyday Ceramics as Sites of Empire
What can eighteenth-century ceramics tell us about empire? Elisabeth Grass examines how fine china tea cups and saucers became fashionable commodities that represent some of the many ways in which empire appeared, and was normalised, in British homes.
Counter-Narratives of Empire and the ‘Oceania’ Exhibition
‘Stolen’, ‘plundered’ and ‘more than art’. Meg Foster looks at the living spiritual and cultural meanings of ‘objects’ featured in the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.