Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala - Non Fiction - Paperback

Details
Condition: BRAND NEW
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781473661233
Publisher: Two Roads
Age Range: Adult / 16+

Overview
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire is Akala's searing, Sunday Times bestselling exploration of how Britain's imperial past continues to shape race and class today. Blending sharp memoir with rigorous historical analysis, the musician, journalist and political commentator draws on his own upbringing to interrogate policing, education, identity and politics. Accessible yet unflinching, it is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand modern Britain through an honest, evidence-based lens on race, class and empire.

About the Book
Akala opens with a childhood memory of being stopped and searched, using this and other formative experiences as a springboard into a wider reckoning with Britain's social and historical landscape. He traces how the legacies of slavery and empire still inform contemporary inequality. Chapters examine the criminal justice system, the failures of the British education system to teach honest imperial history, the construction of racial identity, the far right's resurgence, and the sexual objectification bound up with racialised stereotypes. Rather than treating race and class as separate issues, Akala insists they are deeply intertwined, and uses comparative examples from the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States to illustrate how British exceptionalism obscures its own colonial record. The result is neither a conventional memoir nor a straightforward political tract, but a hybrid work that has been widely praised for making complex historical and sociological arguments approachable without diluting their force. First published in 2018, the book struck a chord well beyond its original audience and saw a fresh surge of interest and bestseller status following renewed global conversations about race in 2020. It remains a widely recommended text in schools, universities and reading groups grappling with Britain's imperial legacy and its living consequences.

• Combines personal memoir with rigorous historical and political analysis
• Explores policing, education, identity, politics and the far right through a race-and-class lens
• Sunday Times bestseller with sustained critical acclaim
• Accessible prose ideal for book clubs, students and general readers alike
• Encourages honest conversation about Britain's imperial history
• Brand new paperback, perfect for gifting or personal reading

About the Author
Akala, born Kingslee James McLean Daley, is a British rapper, writer, poet and activist raised in Camden, London by a Jamaican father and Scottish mother. A BAFTA and MOBO award-winning musician, he has built a parallel career as a public intellectual, historian and broadcaster, known for bridging hip hop, journalism and political commentary. Natives is his acclaimed first book-length work, drawing on his own life to examine Britain's unresolved relationship with race, class and empire.

Why You'll Love This Book
Honest, urgent and beautifully argued, Natives turns personal history into a compelling case study of modern Britain. It's the rare book that satisfies memoir readers, politics fans and anyone hungry for a franker national conversation.

Please Note: Cover design may vary slightly from the image shown; this is the current UK edition with the ISBN listed above.