One fine day : Britain's empire on the brink, September 29, 1923 / Matthew Parker.
Edition:
First US edition.
Publisher:
PublicAffairs,
Copyright Date:
2023
Description:
593 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Notes:
"Originally published in Great Britain in 2023 by Abacus, an imprint of Little, Brown UK"--Title page verso. Includes bibliographical references (on author's website) and index.
Contents:
Part one: The sun rises -- Consuming Ocean Island -- 'The Great Inter-Britannic Council' -- The metropole -- 'Australia unlimited' -- 'A moron from Whitechapel' -- 'The dream of the heart' -- The 'prince of hearts' : 'pivot of empire' -- 'Dying races' -- 'The man with a million patients' -- 'Subtle and even more deadly influences' -- Grimble in paradise -- 'Empire bunk' -- Forster and Nehru -- 'Loyal India' -- Amritsar -- 'The moment of moments' -- 'An organization of real power' -- 'An orgy of arrests' -- Chinese Malaya -- 'A true Malayan spirit' -- 'Schizoid rule' -- 'Fatherless young chickens' and 'pale strangers' ; An empire of sport -- Part two: The sun sets -- The lost kingdom -- Imperial Orwell -- The big shoot -- Kenya : the law of rule -- 'A situation of grave peril might have arisen' -- India's America -- 'A red-letter day' -- 'Africa for the Africans' -- Health and education in West Africa -- Freetown's Technical School for Girls -- The Economic Conference -- The morbid age -- 'The empire's darkest slum' -- 'Not yet'.
Summary:
September 29, 1923. Once the Palestine Mandate officially takes effect, the British Empire - now covering a quarter of the world's land and boasting a population of 460 million - is the largest the world has ever seen. But it is also an empire in rapid transition. Nationalist and Pan-African movements are gaining momentum throughout West Africa, thanks as much to Marcus Garvey as to the sustained efforts of local activists and politicians. On far-flung Ocean Island in the Pacific, highly profitable phosphate extraction threatens to render the land uninhabitable for its native population. Colonial officials are torn between their integrity and their careers. And in India, Jawaharlal Nehru and fellow nationalists wonder despairingly about the future of the independence movement as Gandhi languishes in prison. Moving from London to Kuala Lumpur, Australia to the West Indies, One Fine Day is a breathtaking and unflinching tour of the British Empire at its pinnacle. Here, the Empire is at its biggest; but it is on a precipice, beset with debts and doubts as liberation movements emerge to undo the colonial era, and see the sun set on the Empire.
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