{"product_id":"the-truth-about-empire","title":"The Truth About Empire","description":"\u003ch3 class=\"text-20 xl:text-40 mt-2 leading-none\"\u003eReal Histories of British Colonialism\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"rhb58\"\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Truth About Empire\u003c\/i\u003e comes from expert historians who believe that the truth, as far as we can pinpoint it, matters; that our decades of painstaking research make us worth listening to; and that our authority as leading professionals should count for something in today’s polarised debates over Britain’s imperial past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"o245\"\u003eIn the culture wars, the public’s understanding of colonial history is continually distorted by wilful caricatures. With their fight to highlight Empire’s horrors, communities whose voices once went unheard have alienated many who would prefer a celebratory national history. The backlash, orchestrated by elements of the media, has produced a concerted denial of British imperial racism and violence – a disinformation campaign sharing both tactics and motivations with those around Covid, Brexit and climate change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"3fudn\"\u003eFrom Australia and China to India and South Africa, this essay collection is an accessible guide to the British Empire, and a shield against the assault on historical truth. The disturbing stories told in these pages, of Empire’s culture, politics and economics, show why professional research matters, when deciding what can and cannot be known about Britain’s colonial past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"4564q\"\u003e‘Timely insights into both the British empire and into historiography past and present.’ – Corinne Fowler, Bella Caledonia\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"75bns\"\u003e‘An essential contribution to scholarship on the British Empire. This is an important book for our times.’ – Kavita Puri, author of \u003ci\u003ePartition Voices: Untold British Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"dlhnl\"\u003e‘In a time of harmful, government-backed myth-making about the past, \u003ci\u003eThe Truth About Empire\u003c\/i\u003e offers important assurance of the value of and need for scholarly expertise and dialogue. Expert historians patiently, and devastatingly, prove the scholarly malpractice behind recent ideologically motivated attempts to whitewash the past. A lesson in the follies of peddling and trusting bogus history.’ – Priya Satia, author of \u003ci\u003eTime’s Monster: How History Makes History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"737sb\"\u003e‘Systematically reveals the questionable foundations of apologies for British colonialism. …A masterclass in historical scholarship.’ – \u003ci\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"4vjfc\"\u003e‘Provides a kind of index of approaches experts can take when their subject is made the ground of culture war discourse-mongering…Stuart Ward’s chapter is a brilliant historicisation of the genre of post-imperial apologetics.’ – \u003ci\u003eRed Pepper Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"6a7st\"\u003e‘We can welcome \u003ci\u003eThe Truth About Empire\u003c\/i\u003e as a major contribution to current debates over British imperial history.’ – \u003ci\u003eInside Story \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"94f4\"\u003e‘A useful volume with broad coverage…a welcome respite from polemical observations that appear in abundance across traditional and social media alike.’ – \u003ci\u003eInternational Affairs\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"ckjh0\"\u003e‘\u003ci\u003eThe Truth about Empire\u003c\/i\u003e is for those wanting more, and something approaching the definitive response to those arguing for a sympathetic view of the empire.’ – \u003ci\u003eThe Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"de190\"\u003e‘A combative volume…incisive…wide-ranging.’ – \u003ci\u003eAfrican Business\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"2lb9s\"\u003e‘A fine collection of detailed and remarkably restrained assessments of the troubling and dubious manner in which the right-wing polemicists of the culture wars have distorted the historical record in service of the political rehabilitation of colonialism.’ – Michael Taylor, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"4q87l\"\u003e‘Lester has assembled an A Team of – can we say this now? – experts. The result is an incredibly readable collection that is nuanced, complex, calm and seriously informed – just what we need now on this vital and important subject.’ – Matthew Parker, author of \u003ci\u003eOne Fine Day: Britain’s Empire on the Brink\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"4q87l\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-block-key=\"afqta\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlan Lester\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Sussex and Adjunct Professor of History at La Trobe University. He has written eleven books on British colonialism, most recently \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eRuling the World: Freedom, Civilisation and Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century British Empire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e; and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDeny and Disavow: The British Empire in the Culture War\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e (co-authored; 2nd edition).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlan Lester, foreword by Sathnam Sanghera\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePublished November 2026\u003cbr\u003ePaperback\u003cbr\u003e400 pages\u003cbr\u003e198mm x 129mm\u003cbr\u003eISBN \u003cspan\u003e9781805265900\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hurst Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Alan Lester","offer_id":59928535138385,"sku":"9781805265900","price":37.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0955\/6464\/files\/9781911723097_vbC2ma5-original.jpg?v=1785377522","url":"https:\/\/shop.mhnsw.au\/products\/the-truth-about-empire","provider":"Museums of History NSW","version":"1.0","type":"link"}