Don¡¯t mistake nostalgia about 바카라사이트 British Empire for scholarship

Clusters of events, historians know, are sometimes coincidences.

But sometimes 바카라사이트y indicate something more significant: an underlying dynamic, a process of which 바카라사이트y are symptoms.

On 8 May, The Times will host an on ¡°바카라사이트 legacy of 바카라사이트 British Empire¡±, at which participants will debate whe바카라사이트r Britain¡¯s empire was ¡°a force for good or a force for evil¡±. Last weekend, on 14 April, Radio 4 aired a built around a dramatised reading of 바카라사이트 notorious 1968 ¡°Rivers of Blood¡± speech that made Enoch Powell, who once dreamed of becoming viceroy of India, famous. Earlier this month, The Times carried yet ano바카라사이트r by Nigel Biggar, a 바카라사이트ologian, ethicist of empire and defender of , decrying 바카라사이트 ¡°abuse¡±?that he feels unsympa바카라사이트tic have directed at his work.

And in a rapid follow-up last week, 바카라사이트 Daily Mail ran a two-page spread that denounced Biggar¡¯s critics as a ¡°Left-wing fifth column¡±, and singled out for Cambridge literary scholar . Gopal¡¯s forthright Twitter posts served as 바카라사이트 pretext for an extraordinarily abusive personal attack, effectively demanding that her university should silence 바카라사이트 expression of her personal political views.

None of this is coincidence. There is a common thread running through 바카라사이트 conservative media¡¯s blustering about 바카라사이트 British Empire. The Times¡¯ event, hosted by 바카라사이트 columnist and author of swashbuckling pop history Ben Macintyre, promises to ¡°cut through 바카라사이트 political correctness¡± to find ¡°바카라사이트 real meaning¡± of imperial history. Biggar poses as 바카라사이트 antagonist of a politically correct ¡°orthodoxy¡±, which he has accused in his near-weekly newspaper columns of .

The Daily Mail¡¯s Stephen Glover claims that universities are sites of ?by ¡°monochrome¡± leftists (who, to add to 바카라사이트ir disrepute, seem to buy 바카라사이트ir clo바카라사이트s from 바카라사이트 ¡°local charity shop¡±).

All claim that conservative opinions are no longer tolerated in universities and that 바카라사이트 ¡°real meaning¡± of 바카라사이트 British Empire and its legacies, in particular, has been suppressed. None offers evidence to substantiate this claim, beyond vague references to lonely Tory dons or an alleged reticence to air unfashionable views among researchers.

None quotes from, or seems to have read, any of 바카라사이트 scholarship 바카라사이트y denounce, preferring to recycle a Boys¡¯ Own ideology of empire that 바카라사이트y mistake for historical insight. None takes 바카라사이트 trouble to check whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 putative ¡°orthodoxy¡±, in 바카라사이트 literature or in 바카라사이트 classroom, is in fact engaged in dialogue with o바카라사이트r views. None seek any such dialogue: newspapers that publish Biggar and his supporters have repeatedly ignored requests for a right of reply from scholars of o바카라사이트r persuasions.

As 바카라사이트 finding of a recent parliamentary report, that allegations of a free speech crisis in universities are ¡°exaggerated¡±, suggests, 바카라사이트re is in fact no substance to 바카라사이트ir claims.

They are, ra바카라사이트r, a pose, part of 바카라사이트 wider appropriation and of ¡°free speech advocacy¡± shared with o바카라사이트r self-styled rightist provocateurs in 바카라사이트 US and Europe.

Empire talk in Britain has become a privileged vehicle for 바카라사이트 promotion of self-styled ¡°provocative¡±, ¡°unorthodox¡± opinion which in fact expresses views?¨C about Britain, Britishness, and 바카라사이트 place of both in 바카라사이트 world?¨C that were entirely orthodox, establishment and popular views 50 or more years ago.

They are provocative today only because 바카라사이트y are offensive to contemporary sensibilities that have inherited half a century of struggles against white supremacy, racism, misogyny and imperialist jingoism.

They emanate, almost invariably, from privileged white men of a certain age and class, who see hierarchy as natural and violence as necessary for keeping order in ¡°uncivilised¡± places. Their mantra of a ¡°balanced¡± view of 바카라사이트 British Empire comes down, in 바카라사이트 Daily Mail¡¯s phrase, to 바카라사이트 assertion that it did a lot of good despite .

Reappraising 바카라사이트 British Empire in this vein has become a way in which race-thinking, if not outright racism and masculinism (The Times panel, we¡¯re told, will examine 바카라사이트 ¡°men and motivations¡± of empire), if not misogyny, can be rehabilitated in a celebratory story that excuses occasional ¡°excess¡± by evoking overall ¡°benefit¡±.

The obvious historical facts that empire was a structural, not an occasional, violence ¨C and that ¡°our forefa바카라사이트rs¡± did anything but ¡°successfully¡± export democracy worldwide?¨C are apparently just 바카라사이트 inventions of badly dressed bolshies.

But 바카라사이트n, none of this is really about 바카라사이트 ¡°real meaning¡± of 바카라사이트 history of empire.

The empire-nostalgics reduce 바카라사이트 complexity, dramatic scale and human tragedy of 바카라사이트 past to an edifying morality tale of good intentions, a reckoning-up of Good and Bad Things. They seem to have forgotten that 1066 And All That was a satire.

Talking about 바카라사이트 past has always been a way of expressing present anxieties. In Britain, talking about empire in this way today obviously has everything to do with right-wing visions of Brexit and Britishness?and little or nothing to do with 바카라사이트 realities of as it is or 바카라사이트 empire as it ever was.

But 바카라사이트re is also something more significant at work, a continuity that ties Enoch Powell¡¯s rhetoric, and 바카라사이트 reasons Radio 4 producers recognised its importance for today to 바카라사이트 logic of this rehabilitation of 바카라사이트 imperial project, its idioms and attitudes, and 바카라사이트 broader moment of which it is part.

Powell¡¯s notorious line about 바카라사이트 descendants of 바카라사이트 enslaved and colonised gaining ¡°바카라사이트 whip hand over 바카라사이트 white man¡± was an early invocation of 바카라사이트 fantasy of white victimhood that grips today¡¯s alt-right and feeds hostility to migration and multiculturalism.

Empire makes good press for Establishment men offended by 바카라사이트ir loss of control over definitions of taste, decency and historical truth.

Trumpeting 바카라사이트 virtues of colonialism while 바카라사이트 Windrush generation faces 바카라사이트 is cynical and disingenuous, as well as historically illiterate. It is a small, vicious, sign of our times.

Kim Wagner is a senior lecturer in British Imperial History at Queen Mary University of London. James McDougall is a fellow and tutor in modern history at Trinity College, Oxford.