Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging (Hardback)
Afua Hirsch (author)Published: 01/02/2018
Challenging the harmful legacy of white-centred British history, this is a powerful, hard-hitting examination of modern, divided Britain. Deconstructing the iconography of the Imperial past and its poisonous racist legacy in the modern age, Brit(ish) is essential reading for our times.
Where are you really from? You're British. Your parents are British. You were raised in Britain. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British. So why do people keep asking you where you are from?
Brit(ish) is about a search for identity. It is about the everyday racism that plagues British society. It is about our awkward, troubled relationship with our history. It is about why liberal attempts to be `colour-blind' have caused more problems than they have solved. It is about why we continue to avoid talking about race.
In this personal and provocative investigation, Afua Hirsch explores a very British crisis of identity. We are a nation in denial about our past and our present.
We believe we are the nation of abolition, but forget we are the nation of slavery. We are convinced that fairness is one of our values, but that immigration is one of our problems.
Brit(ish) is the story of how and why this came to be, and an urgent call for change.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781911214281
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 611 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 36 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
"Who is British? What is Britishness? This if a fierce, thought-provoking and fervent take on the most urgent questions facing us today." - The Financial Times
"Hirsch's writing is a warm, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching blend of the personal and the political" - The Guardian
"Warm, informative and occasionally heart-wrenching… more than a countrywide conversation-starter… it's a deeply personal look at who she always knew she was, but didn't feel ready to say yet." - The Observer
"Brit(ish) is a wonderful, important, courageous book, and it could not be more timely: a vital and necessary point of reference for our troubled age in a country that seems to have lost its bearings. It's about identity and belonging in 21st-century Britain: intimate and troubling; forensic but warm, funny and wise." -- Philippe Sands
"Highly personal and yet instantly universal, this is a book that millions will instantly relate to. Written with passion not anger, insight rather than resentment, on the issues of race, identity and the multiple meanings of Britishness this is the book for our divided and dangerous times." - David Olusoga
"Memoir, social analysis and an incisively argued challenge to unconscious biases: this is a truly stunning book on racial identity by a remarkable woman." -- Helena Kennedy
"[A] bracing and brilliant exploration of national identity ... A book everyone should read: especially comfy, white, middle-class liberals." - Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Editor's Choice
"Brit(ish) is a hybrid of memoir, reportage and social commentary. But it is also a quest to articulate and complete a personal identity by looking to Africa for answers ... Heart-rending ... Hirsch combines candour with self-deprecating humour ... The power of her writing matches that of other important black writers." - Colin Grant, Guardian
"Sure to be a conversation starter." - Layla Haidrani, Metro
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