The Empire Strikes Back: 30 years on

Abstract

The Empire Strikes Back was a landmark text in the formation and transformation of ethnic and racial studies in Britain. With issues of race, migration, nation and inequality starkly back on the current political and public agenda, this review article reflects on the continued significance of the book's insights and challenges for contemporary race politics in the UK.

Keywords:

• Britain
• CCCS Collective
• migration
• racism/racial inequality

Notes

1. Speech to London Rotary Club Eastbourne, 16 November 1968 (http://www.enochpowell.net/fr-83.html).

2. In his speech to the Security Council in Munich in February 2011, Cameron argued that Britain should promote an ‘active muscular liberalism’ to challenge extremism and instil feelings of multiple belonging for ‘rootless’ young Muslims caught between ‘traditional Islam practised by their parents’ and a weakened national identity: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/02/terrorism-islam-ideology.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claire Alexander

CLAIRE ALEXANDER is Professor of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester.