I learnt so much about black history and black presence in the UK. I haven't read other books on black history, but I can honestly say that Fryer's book is probably one of the best.Įnormously well researched, fluidly written, easy to understand - indeed, this book is a well of absolute brilliance. The other side of that is that this book doesn't have that much to say about women of colour, with the inevitable (but worthy) exception of Mary Seacole.Īnyway, it's a book I'm glad to have read and glad to have on my shelf for reference and as a starting-point for further reading. The book also reveals, although the author doesn't actually express this, how closely allied white supremacy and misogyny have been in British history: I was pretty astounded by how frequently and consistently the trouble seems to come down to white men attacking black men because white women chose to socialize with and sleep with the latter. But for me it's been a pretty good starting-point and strikes a balance between exposing the shameful history of white supremacy and chronicling the active lives and achievements of black people (both individual big personalities and collective movements). The book is compendious rather than profound, is by now some decades out of date, and is written by a white guy who therefore probably shows his whiteness in ways I wouldn't necessarily pick up on. Which just goes to show why people like us need to learn about these histories.

'When does it start,' she said, 'the 1950s?' More like the 150s AD. This new edition includes the classic introduction by Paul Gilroy, author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack, in addition to a brand-new foreword by Guardian journalist Gary Younge, which examines the book's continued significance today as we face Brexit and a revival of right wing nationalism.A white colleague asked me what I was reading and I said it was a history of black people in Britain. By rewriting black Britons into the British story, showing where they influenced political traditions, social institutions and cultural life, was - and is - a deeply effective counter to a racist and nationalist agenda.

Stretching back to the Roman conquest, encompassing the court of Henry VIII, and following a host of characters from Mary Seacole to the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, Peter Fryer paints a picture of two thousand years of Black presence in Britain.įirst published in the '80s, amidst race riots and police brutality, Fryer's history performed a deeply political act revealing how Africans, Asians and their descendants had long been erased from British history. Staying Power is a panoramic history of black Britons.

Staying power the history of black