Empire's Endgame: Racism and the British State

by Gargi Bhattacharyya, Adam Elliott-Cooper, Sita Balani

We are in a moment of profound overlapping crises. The landscape of politics and entitlement is being rapidly and unpredictably remade. As movements against colonial legacies and state violence coincide with the rise of new authoritarian regimes, it is the analytical lens of racism, and the politics of race, that offers the sharpest focus.

In Empire's Endgame, eight leading scholars make a powerful collective intervention in debates around racial capitalism and political crisis in the British context. While the 'Hostile Environment' policy and Brexit Referendum have thrown the centrality of race into sharp relief, discussions of racism have too often focused on individual attitudes and behaviours. Foregrounding instead the wider political and economic context, the authors of Empire's Endgame trace the ways in which the legacies of empire have been reshaped by global capitalism, the digital environment and the instability of the nation-state.

Engaging with contemporary movements such as Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall, Empire's Endgame offers both an original perspective on race, media, the state and criminalisation, and a vision of a political infrastructure that might include rather than expel in the face of crisis.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Race, Politics, British Literature, Economics, American

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2020

About the author

Gargi Bhattacharyya is a Professor of Sociology at the University of East London. They have written widely in the fields of racism, sexuality, global cultures and the ‘war on terror’.

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good - well written and thought-provoking, with the compound authorship making it feel almost like a group discussion that includes the reader. Topics are well picked, generally convincing, and encourage a more nuanced perspective that places specific events in wider contexts and institutions. I thought it would have been greatly enhanced by more use of case studies to ground the more abstract discussions, and if more context was provided on certain events (British imperial history and the killing of detained racialised people being the two instances that come to mind) I think this would have made the book a better educational tool. On the note of it as an educational tool, if there's a second edition I'd like to see a section on some recommended reading quickly reviewed and discussed. Still, I can imagine rereading certain sections, so would recommend.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking and accessibly written. A wide ranging introduction to the frontiers of anti-racism in contemporary Britain. Whilst Empire's Endgame certainly doesn't downplay the scale of the challenge, it manages to present a rousing and hopeful outlook of how a better future might be built through collective solidarities.

[Nyasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and insightful book that looks at how the UK is falling as a country in every aspect from it's failures to take care of Grenfell residents to it's portrayal of victims of the Windrush Scandal.

Very easy to read for those who can't see the issues grappling this country and want to understand how things have gone the way they have. My favourite chapters are Windrush, Knife Crime and COVID-19.

[Mari C.L. Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really, really good — well-articulated and really accessible. The authors very purposefully make chapters short and the book as a whole is only 200 pages, which both makes it extremely readable and extremely impressive that it can engage with and unpack so many different things. Sometimes it suffered from a failure to define terms/assumption that readers are familiar with them (biopolitics is used but not defined; necropolitics, conversely, is described but not named), but on the whole I could not stop telling people about this text and suggesting the give it a go. A very solid provocation on the state of our present and the direction of our future.

[Tommy Royds · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really engaging read. Impressive analysis of the new styled progressive nationalism, sweeping Britain today. One that has conveniently forgotten working class or radical movements related to our imperial past (see The Mau Mau and the British Black Panther Party). ‘Foreigners’ can be slotted in so long as they fit with the narrative.

A theme running through ‘Empire’s Endgame’ is Britain’s longing for a patriarchal state. Certainly in times of a Tory government undoubtably winging it: Coronavirus deaths in the hundreds of thousands, unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, decades of stagnant wage growth - one thing the Conservatives can at least try to promise voters is safety at home. A population so under the thumb, they’re convinced that should hell one day freeze over, we could always send the army in.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant conceptualisation and analysis of the UK’s state racism, contextualised within right and left discourse about nationalism, state sovereignty (and Brexit) and globalisation. Triangulating the activist and academic position with its interdisciplinary and collaborative authorship, it sheds new light on public discourse, culture wars and the legacy of the British Empire.

[George Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting set of essays - what it lacks in depth it makes up for in readability. Very clear Marxist perspective on contemporary British racism which felt quite refreshing and allowed them to reframe lots of internet based debate.

[Maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written and accessible very very good a must read for white Britons

[Emma Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

very cool concept of all writers collectively writing a book together, not just one chapter for one author.

[Niamh · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 Star Rating) I enjoyed this book and it gave an interesting insight into the interconnections between colonial and imperial relations and the current rhetoric of today. It had an interesting analysis of contemporary issues and their deep rooted relationship to the past, such as the terminology surrounding the gang. The sections on the patriarchal state and the desire for ‘ sending in the army’ were particularly interesting from a securitisation and gendered viewpoint. I think it is on the lower end of four stars as at times it felt like it wasn’t grounding some of the theory in reality, and I was left wanting more empirical contextualisation to back up the theoretical hypothesis. It also had a clear political stance throughout which at times came over a bit Rant-y and detracted from the seriousness and validity of the themes.