From Norman Stone to Priyamvada Gopal on Insurgent Empire. Progress in History
The right-wing historian and former speech writer for Margaret Thatcher Norman Stone died recently.
Richard J Evans has written a very fair obituary in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/25/norman-stone-obituary
Stone belonged to an earlier generation of the right so that when Priyamvada encountered those who justified imperialism and Empire she came across not Norman Stone but the altogether more sophisticated Niall Ferguson. She mentions in the introduction to her new book an episode of Start the Week in 2006 in which she appeared and came across Ferguson ‘the media face of the case for British imperialism’.
She has now published an excellent book Insurgent Empire (Verso 2019):
It can be seen as a positive riposte to the kind of right-wing imperial history promoted by Norman Stone, proof that there can be progress in history
Leave a Reply