Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins

Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction

"Caroline Elkins has written an important book that can change our understanding not just of Africa but of ourselves. --Bill Berkeley, author of The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa

A major work of history that for the first time reveals the violence and terror at the heart of Britain's civilizing mission in Kenya.

As part of the Allied forces, thousands of Kenyans fought alongside the British in World War II. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler, the British colonial government detained nearly the entire population of Kenya's largest ethnic minority, the Kikuyu--some one and a half million people.

The compelling story of the system of prisons and work camps where thousands met their deaths has remained largely untold--the victim of a determined effort by the British to destroy all official records of their attempts to stop the Mau Mau uprising, the Kikuyu people's ultimately successful bid for Kenyan independence.

Caroline Elkins, an assistant professor of history at Harvard University, spent a decade in London, Nairobi, and the Kenyan countryside interviewing hundreds of Kikuyu men and women who survived the British camps, as well as the British and African loyalists who detained them.

The result is an unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial empire in Kenya--a pivotal moment in twentieth-century history with chilling parallels to America's own imperial project.

CAROLINE ELKINS is professor of history and of African and African American studies at Harvard University and the founding director of Harvard's Center for African Studies. Her first book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. She is a contributor to The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. She has also appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including NPR's All Things Considered and BBC's The World. She lives in Watertown and Marion, Massachusetts.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780805080018
ISBN 10	0805080015
Title	Imperial Reckoning
Author	Caroline Elkins
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Henry Holt & Company Inc
Year published	2005-12-27
Number of pages	496
Prizes	Winner of Pulitzer Prize (Nonfiction) 2006
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.