A 2019 study found that “in the collections of eighteen major US art museums, 87 percent of artworks were by men, and 85 percent by white artists.” There’s a lot to be mad about, but London-based art historian Hessel nimbly pivots that energy into a constructive, revelatory project. Prominent 19th-century art critic John Ruskin once proclaimed, “the woman’s intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision,” and traces of this misguided and malignant sentiment can still be found over a century later in art institutions around the world.

The sun may have set on the British Empire, but this piercing examination of its legacies is thoroughly timely.Īn indispensable primer on the history of art, with an exclusive focus on women. Readers whose familiarity with British history and culture is not acute may find themselves reaching for external context at times, but Sanghera’s exploration of the topic is consistently lively and just as often laugh-out-loud funny as it is deeply painful. The author frequently strings lists of names or facts into single, long sentences, accreting evidence for his argument that, say, Britain has been multicultural for centuries in a way that is hard to deny-and when he uses the same rhetorical device in his unexpectedly optimistic conclusion, it’s equally effective. Observing that much British conversation about empire has been binary-“a veritable industrial oven of hot potatoes”-he pleads for a nuanced view of Britain’s “difficult history.” Acknowledging that his “quintessentially British” education “encouraged me to view my Indian heritage through patronizing Western eyes,” he nevertheless loves the nation, even though immigrants are endlessly instructed to integrate.” It is, as he points out passionately, his home. Drawing from sources as varied as Jan Morris, Edward Said, and Twitter, Sanghera moves elegantly through one legacy to the next, frequently opposing imperial apologists against detractors. in 2021) with a note to American readers: “The contention that the War of Independence marked a total rejection of the British Empire is the historical equivalent of a teenager leaving home and declaring that his parents had nothing to do with shaping him.” Indeed, American readers will find much that’s familiar in the account that follows, in which the author probes Britain’s imperial history to find its present-day influences-which are everywhere: in Britain’s monuments and museums, education system, multiculturalism, racism, even its trash TV. edition (the book was published in the U.K. A British Sikh journalist and documentarian probes the lasting effects of “one of the biggest white supremacist enterprises in the history of humanity.”

Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera