Black and British: A Forgotten History
In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.
This edition, fully revised and updated, features a new chapter encompassing the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, events which put black British history at the centre of urgent national debate. Black and British is vivid confirmation that black history can no longer be kept separate and marginalised. It is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation and it belongs to us all.
Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation. It is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.
Unflinching, confronting taboos, and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries.
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About the Author
David Olusoga is a British-Nigerian historian, author, presenter and BAFTA winning film-maker. He is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and a columnist for The Observer. He also writes for The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Voice and BBC History Magazine.
He presents the long-running BBC history series A House Through Time and wrote and presented the award winning series Black & British: A Forgotten History and Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. His other presenting credits include The World’s War, and The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files. David was also one of the presenters on the BBC landmark arts series Civilizations alongside Simon Schama and Mary Beard. He is the Creative Director of Uplands Television Limited, a Bristol based independent production company, through which he develops and exec-produces history and arts projects.