1st Edition

Windrush (1948) and Rivers of Blood (1968) Legacy and Assessment

Edited By Trevor Harris Copyright 2020
    244 Pages
    by Routledge

    244 Pages
    by Routledge

    This volume looks at Britain since 1948 – the year when the Empire Windrush brought a group of 492 hopeful Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom. “Post-war Britain” may still be the most common label attached to studies in contemporary British history, but the contributors to this book believe that “post-Windrush Britain” has an explanatory power which is equally useful. The objective is to study the Windrush generation and Enoch Powell’s now infamous speech not only in their original historical context but also as a key element in the political, social and cultural make-up of today’s Britain. Contributions to the book use a diversity of approaches: from the lucid, forward-looking assessment by Trevor Phillips, which opens the volume; through Patrick Vernon’s account of the legacy of Powell’s speech in Birmingham and how it inspired him to launch a national campaign for Windrush Day; to the plea from novelist and playwright Chris Hannan for a fully inclusive, national conversation to help overturn deeply ingrained prejudice in all parts of our society.

    List of contributors

    Preface

     

    Part I - Windrush and Powell: context, reaction, testimony

    Chapter 1 2048: Europe One Hundred Years on from Windrush - Trevor Phillips OBE

    Chapter 2 The Children of the Windrush Generation: An Oral History Study - Sharon Baptiste

    Chapter 3 The Stars Campaign for Interracial Friendship and the Notting Hill Riots of 1958 - Rick Blackman

    Chapter 4 Many Rivers to Cross: The Legacy of Enoch Powell in Wolverhampton - Patrick Vernon OBE

    Chapter 5 Enoch Powell, the Anglosphere, and the roots of Brexit - David Shiels

    Chapter 6 Citizen Backlash Correspondence: Letters to Enoch Powell after "Rivers of Blood" - Neal Allen

    Part II - Caribbean legacies: Culture in Britain since Windrush

    Chapter 7 Producing a (cultural) identity: nation and immigration in Stuart Hall’s writing - Carlos Navarro González

    Chapter 8 "There soon may not be any West Indian left who made the passage to England": Caryl Phillips and the Windrush Years - Josiane Ranguin

    Chapter 9 Letters and Chronicles from the Windrush Generation: Epistolary Sorrow, Epistolary Joy - Judith Misrahi-Barak

    Chapter 10 "Don’t Call Us Immigrants": The Musical and Political Legacy of Reggae in Britain - David Bousquet

    Chapter 11 Forever Other? Black Britons on Screen (1959-2016) - Anne-Lise Marin-Lamellet

    Chapter 12 The Windrush Generation in the Picture: Armet Francis, Neil Kenlock, Dennis Morris and Charlie Phillips - Kerry-Jane Wallart

    Chapter 13 Chris Hannan’s What Shadows: What drama? A conversation with the nation - Pascal Cudicio

    Chapter 14 In Conversation with Chris Hannan, author of What Shadows

    Part III - Post-war British immigration policy in context: two international comparisons

    Chapter 15 Framing and Legitimising Discriminatory Immigration Policies: A Cross-Channel Survey (1948-1970) - Vincent Latour and Catherine Puzzo

    Chapter 16 The Empire Windrush Migration in international context: Debates about Race and Colour of Skin in British Canada, 1900s-1960s - Dirk Hoerder

    Index

    Biography

    Trevor Harris is Professor of British Studies at the Université Bordeaux Montaigne.