Kavinay

Every once in a while, someone will venture forth with a pseudo-academic diatribe about how colonialism and imperialism were ultimately valuable for nations captured by European mercantile and military might.

They also tend to be the people who will tell you how clever Churchill was, how The British Raj created modern India and how the British Empire should be a source of pride.

In such cases, I recommend you point such committed imperialists to the staggering body of documentation and evidence that Madhusree Mukerjee has collected in Churchill's Secret War.

The picture that emerges of British efforts to starve India for political gain is monstrous.

Mukerjee doesn't even have to take a side. She lets British officials both close to Churchhill's administration and The Raj flay the PM and the empire in their honest assessment of the quiet genocide perpetrated during World War II.

An empire of famine, condescension and pride: Churchill and Britain are impossible to apologize for after you've read this book.

Most of racial struggle only makes sense in context and what a context this book provides.

Some may critique the treatment of Newton and Cleaver with kid gloves–there's certainly a lot there still be explored–but this is no hagiography of Black Panther leadership or the party itself. The rise and fall of the party is just stunning. Maybe three years of prominence and then a spectacular fall off the national stage. Bloom and Martin tell a detailed history of not just the events but the mindset and–most importantly– the mindset behind each of the major events in the party's movement.

In a sense, you're constantly boggled by how a militant, socialist and anti-racist activism of any kind could grow to such prominence when you consider the horror directed toward contemporary movements like BLM. Black Against Empire is a hell of an eye opener.