Alan Burns came from one of those families where the children all seem to have been remarkable (in personality or intellect), consequential, and ideologically irreconcilable. The Last Imperialist by Bruce Gilley might have been a nuanced study of one such family (like those captivating Mitford biographies—I think there have been almost a dozen so far). Or it could have been about the devout Roman Catholic and Anglo West Indian, from birth an establishment outsider, who made it his life mission to defend the very establishment that had rejected him. Instead, Gilley chose to write an improbable apologia of the British Empire, and while he does fold some biography into the polemic, he’s so entirely united with Burns in admiration for colonialism that the book devolves into pure encomium somewhere around page three. Continue reading “New Books: The Last Imperialist”
Month: April 2023
Trial Databases April/May 2023
Trial Databases
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library has two new trial databases, Black South African Magazines and Bibliography of Indigenous People in North America. Check out the descriptions below!
Enjoying these databases? Let us know at hpnl@library.illinois.edu
Africa Commons: Black South African Magazines
Trial available through April 30, 2023. Continue reading “Trial Databases April/May 2023”