People of African and Caribbean descent have inhabited Great Britain for centuri
es.Eminent professor Paul Gilroy, renowned for his work exploring the social and
cultural dimensions of British blackness and black Britishness, has assembled a
living visual history of their social life in the modern British Isles. Watersh
ed moments include the rise and commercial circulation of black culture and musi
c, the world wars, the Manchester Pan African Congress, the historic settlement
of the Windrush generation and the riots of the 1980s. Luminaries drawn from pol
itics, art and sport appear alongside many pioneers - the first Jamaican immigra
nt to Brixton, London's first 'Caribbean Carnival', the first black publican and
the first female plumber.
Just as important are the everyday experiences and
anonymous faces. The ordinary lives of people captured here vividly document th
e country's difficult and unfinished process of becoming postcolonial. Published
in association with Getty Images,this volume faeture 321 b&w photographs, comme
ntary by Paul Gilroy and a preface from Professor Stuart Hall.
