'There Ain't no Black in the Union Jack': The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation

By Paul Gilroy and Gilroy Paul

Book Overview

Gilroy demonstrates the enormous complexity of racial politics in England today. Exploring the relationships among race, class, and nation as they have evolved over the past twenty years, he highlights racist attitudes that transcend the left-right political divide. He challenges current sociological approaches to racism as well as the ethnocentric bias of British cultural studies.

"Gilroy demonstrates effectively that cultural traditions are not static, but develop, grow and indeed mutate, as they influence and are influenced by the other changing traditions around them."-David Edgar, Listener Review of Books.

"A fascinating analysis of the discourses that have accompanied black settlement in Britain. . . . An important addition to the stock of critical works on race and culture."-David Okuefuna, Chicago Tribune

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226294277
• ISBN13: 9780226294278
• Release Date: December 1991
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Jolly Good

Paul Gilroy's 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' offers an intriguing examination of race relations in Britain in the 1980s. Gilroy, unlike numerous other theorists, sees the interconnectedness between those discourses around race, class, and gender, and its impact on the black British community. Furthermore, Gilory advances the notion that "materialist theory of culture has much to contribute to 'race relations' analysis" (16). I highly recommend Gilroy's other works in addition to this one. His writing is clear and his dexterity with the topic of race in Britain is unsurpassed.