Contested Return of Empire in Contemporary Britain

Abstract

History and memories of empire, colonialism and slavery have been contested topics in Britain, increasingly so during the past decade. Statues, museums and other cultural institutions, as well as scholarly and popular accounts of history and legacies of the British empire, have been debated at times fiercely. These debates stem partly from the gradual dissemination of topics that have been discussed among scholars for a while. At the same time, both academic research and public discussion about empire are under notable political and societal pressures. In this essay I consider some of these trends, debates and statements in recent publications and the media, drawing from select notable works on history and memories of the empire.