Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag ...

divdivb"An extraordinary act of historical recovery."-iThe New Yorker/i/b/divdivbr As part of the Allied forces, thousands of Kenyans fought alongside the British in World War II. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler, the British colonial government detained nearly the entire population of Kenya's largest ethnic minority, the Kikuyu-some one and a half million people.br The compelling story of the system of prisons and work camps where thousands met their deaths was the victim of a determined effort by the British to destroy all official records of their attempts to stop the Mau Mau uprising. Caroline Elkins spent a decade in London, Nairobi, and the Kenyan countryside interviewing hundreds of survivors of the camps and the British and African loyalists who detained them.br The result is an unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial empire in Kenya-a pivotal moment in twentieth- century history with chilling parallels to America's own imperial project.brbr"Elkins has bravely done justice to history." -iThe Nation/i/divi/idivbr"A vivid portrait of daily life behind the wire." -iThe Economist/i/divdivibr/i"An important and excruciating record. It will shock even those who think they have assumed the worst about Europe's era of control in Africa." -iThe New York Times Book Reviewbr/ibr/div/divdivCaroline Elkins has written an important book that can change our understanding not just of Africa but of ourselves. Through exhaustive research in neglected colonial archives and intrepid reporting among long-forgotten Kikuyu elders in Kenya's Rift Valley, Elkins has documented not just the true scale of a huge and harrowing crime -- Britain's ruthless suppression of the Mau Mau rebellion -- but also the eq