Reddit mentions of Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction

You really underplay the level of systemic violence that was inflicted onto the regions occupied by the British during their colonial and imperialist period. You talk about the British exporting the idea of freedom--I find this laughable, given than the colonized regions (I'm thinking of South Asia) lost much of their political-economy agency. The region was de-industrialized from a combination of outright repression of domestic industry and a forced opening of domestic markets to British goods. And as Mike Davis elaborates in his book Late Victorian Holocausts, tens of millions of Indians suffered needless deaths from artificially exacerbated famines, due to British policies concerning food markets and storage.

We can also look elsewhere to observe all these wonderful freedoms and ideas that you claim were exported by the British. From Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction:

>In 1910, Sir Roger Casement, a former member of the British Consular Service, was asked by the British government to investigate allegations of atrocities committed against the Putumayo Indians by the Peruvian Amazon Company, a British company engaged in the extraction of rubber on the Brazil-Peru border...while in Africa, Casement became skeptical towards the idea of the civilizing claims of imperialism, a scepticism that was only increased by what he found in the Amazon basin.

>>Treatment of the tribal people

>>These are not only murdered, flogged, chained up like wild beasts, hunted far and wide and their dwellings burnt, their wives raped, their children dragged off to slavery and outrage, but are shamelessly swindled into the bargain. These are strong words, but not adequately strong. The condition of things is the most disgraceful, the most lawless, the most inhuman, I believe that exists in the world today. It far exceeds in depravity and demoralization the Congo regime at its worst...The slavery under which they suffer is an abominable, atrocious one...(Casement 1997:294-5)

>(Young 2001: 1-2)

The British didn't end slavery; they just outsourced it. And what is all this talk about how it was still a "historical norm?" Are you trying to fall back on the notion on how we must "judge" history based on the norms of the time? If so, I'd point out that it would make more sense to uphold the moral norms of the various rebellions across the colonial world (i.e. Indian Rebellion of 1857, and their resistance and condemnation of imperialism.

So if you're going to try and defend Empire, you need to have a hell of a lot better analysis than "gee maybe some good came of it though!" Especially when the actual "good" that you vaguely refer to wasn't actually there.

I'm gonna go against the tide here and recommend that you don't read the older books written by Marx, Engels, etc., and find books that discuss socialism today. Here are some I would recommend:

• A Brief History of Neoliberalism from David Harvey, a Marxist political economist, is pretty good in terms of giving a cursory overview of modern capitalism
  
• Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism is a fantastic, under-appreciated book that talks about capitalism and socialism in the context of modern First World societies oriented around technology and the service sector. It also devotes a whole chapter to discussing the origins of socialist thought via Marx, 18th century debates about socialism, and so forth. Well-written and easy/fun to read.
  
• Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction is possibly my favorite book ever. It does a great job of pointing out how socialism/marxism were key to Third World struggles in the 20th century and how the Third World developed and utilized socialist/marxist theory and practice to fit their own local situations. An overall fantastic book that really brings home how socialism is not a monolithic, Eurocentric theory, but something that has a great deal many currents and competing schools of thought.

I'm sure you'll get a number of recommendations for primary sources, but I'll just throw in my two cents on some quality secondary sources introducing the field.

Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction, by Robert Young is excellent for a broad overview that looks at postcolonialism from a long historical perspective and across geographical boundaries (not just the narrow theoretical flourishing of the 80s and 90s).

Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics, by Bart Moore-Gilbert is the best introduction to the "trinity" of Bhabha, Said, and Spivak.

Colonialism/Postcolonialism, by Ania Loomba takes a good activist and materialist approach to the subject.

Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction, by Leela Gandhi focuses, as its title indicates, on the theory boom of the 80s and 90s, offering a look at its strengths and weaknesses as they seemed from an insider at the time.

More stuff that is closer to the 21st century, and reflective analysis of more contemporary revolutionary movements and popular struggles; more stuff related to the Third World

If there is one single book I would recommend it would be this:

• Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001)
  
  No other single book I've read so completely broke my Eurocentric thinking, and gave me a run-down of the vibrant, radical movements that have sprung up across the globe during the 20th century, and the global importance of Marxism
  
  Other recs:
  
  
• Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism (1999)
  
• Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party (2013)
  
• Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power: Community Organizing in Radical Times (2011)
  
• We Created Chavez: A People's History of the Venezuelan Revolution (2012)

Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction

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