Even if you think you know this country’s history well, Empireland is a stunning and thought-provoking read. Sathnam Sanghera’s new bestseller resists the temptation to take anachronistic shots at the brutality and greed of Britain’s imperial history or to puff its achievements. Instead he does something much harder and more interesting. He highlights the empire’s hidden influence, positive and negative, on modern Britain: our politics, culture, education, ethnic make-up, language — indeed our whole sense of place and being. The empire was one of the biggest things in world history, he writes. It has shaped the lives of billions of people. The least we can do is to think about it.
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