Today, only one view of Britain’s history is acceptable. In reality, history is complex and much of Britain’s past is morally ambiguous
to release his book, “Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.” Despite Biggar’s editor initially describing the manuscript as a work of “major importance,” within a few months, Bloomsbury decided that “conditions are not currently favourable to publication.” Fortunately for Biggar, a new publisher, William Collins, has now shown the moral courage toThe NP Comment newsletter from columnist Colby Cosh and NP Comment editors tackles the important topics with boldness, verve and wit.
Some of this is uncontroversial. Slavery clearly has a history of its own that both predates and supersedes the Atlantic slave trade. The likes of Drake in the 16th century did not foresee the Scramble for Africa in the 19th century. And the compulsion to expand the Empire was, at times, no doubt driven more by a defensive need to protect territorial gains from competing European powers than by a desire for conquest as an end in itself.
Biggar acknowledges this complexity. But his desire to push back against the relentlessly negative consensus and to tell a more positive national story can go too far. While he certainly acknowledges the atrocities of colonialism, too often it is just that — an acknowledgement. Eye-wateringly brutal massacres and ruthless displays of cruelty are dispassionately rationalized.
Biggar certainly challenges the popular perception that the British Empire was uniquely evil. But he sails close to rehabilitating the myth of the white man’s burden, an unwanted responsibility that had to be borne with a stiff upper-lip. From this it follows that the British were duty-bound to prevent foreign Natives from either killing each other or selling their neighbours into slavery.
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