Black and British

A Waterstones History Book of the Year.
Winner of the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize.

'Groundbreaking' – The Observer

In this vital re-examination of a shared history, historian and broadcaster David Olusoga tells the rich and revealing story of the long relationship between the British Isles and the people of Africa and the Caribbean.

Black and British is vivid confirmation that black history can no longer be kept separate and marginalised. It is woven into the cultural and economic histories of the nation and it belongs to us all. This edition, fully revised and updated, features a new chapter encompassing the Windrush scandal and the Black Lives Matter protests, events which put black British history at the centre of urgent national debate.

Drawing on new genealogical research, original records, and expert testimony, Black and British reaches back to Roman Britain, the medieval imagination, Elizabethan ‘blackamoors’ and the global slave-trading empire. It shows that the great industrial boom of the nineteenth century was built on American slavery, and that black Britons fought at Trafalgar and in the trenches of both World Wars. Black British history is not a singular history, but one that belongs to us all.

Unflinching, confronting taboos, and revealing hitherto unknown scandals, Olusoga describes how the lives of black and white Britons have been entwined for centuries.

'[A] comprehensive and important history of black Britain . . . Written with a wonderful clarity of style and with great force and passion.' – Kwasi Kwarteng, The Sunday Times

Winner of the Longman History Today Trustees’ Award.
Longlisted for the Orwell Prize.
Shortlisted for the inaugural Jhalak Prize.