Struggles for a Past Irish and Afro–Caribbean Histories in England, 1951–2000
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Kevin Myers is Senior Lecturer in Social History and Education at the University of Birmingham<p><i>‘Struggles for a Past </i>is an excellent and thought-provoking book. It not only provides important analysis of the Irish and Afro-Caribbean experience in England; it centres a consideration of the very place and role of history and memory in the construction and understanding of race in England. This historiographical account is a productive avenue for educational and social historians, and certainly holds significant further potential for future work.’<br />Jessica Gerrard, <i>Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne</i>, History of Education, 2017, Vol. 46, No. 4<br /><br />'an important and timely book, which helps us to understand how narratives of the past can be potent instruments of identity formation.'<br />Twentieth Century British History</p>
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This book examines the construction of ethnic communities, and of multicultural policy, in post-war England. It explores how Irish and Afro-Caribbean immigrants responded to their representation as alien races by turning to history. In cultural and educational projects immigrants imagined, researched, wrote and pictured their pasts. They did so because they sought in the past dignity, a common humanity and an explanation of the hostility that had greeted them in England.
But the meaning of the past is never fixed. Encouraged and conditioned by the burgeoning field of race relations, these histories were interpreted as expressions of difference. They asserted, it was claimed, specific ethnic needs and identities. They were the nation’s ‘other histories’. Drawing on a wide range of sources and covering many different debates, the book seeks to recover the inclusive historical imagination of radical scholars and activists who saw in the past the resources for a better future.
Introduction
1. The nation and its people 1951–68
2. History and humanism 1968–81
3. Pluralism, politics and the uses of the past 1981–2000
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Immigration and racism are amongst the most controversial topics in English society. This book provides an accessible account of post-war immigration but it also critiques the language of racial, ethnic and cultural difference that emerged to understand racism. Combining history and social theory, Struggles for a past makes a genuine contribution to debates on English identity, historical memory and contemporary multiculturalism.
This book explores how Irish and Afro-Caribbean immigrants were represented in post-war English culture. Beginning with the 1951 Festival of Britain, it illuminates how dominant perceptions of the national past helped to construct immigrants as outsiders. Those outsiders were understood to pose ‘race’ problems that required management and intervention. Race relations work had serious shortcomings but it also offered immigrant groups a space and a language to construct their heritage and to deploy historical narratives in pursuit of social justice. In cultural and educational projects, immigrants and their children struggled for their pasts and won recognition as ethnic groups. Yet, as they did so, they became trapped by an ethnic historicism that closed down the possibilities of social justice for all.
Written in an accessible manner, and combining history, sociology and education, this book will appeal to students and general readers interested in the history of race ideas, in historical memory and the future of social justice.